Hey you! Yes you :)

Thanks so much for sticking with us for the past infinity of endless space year and a half. Y'alls engagement and excitement is part of what motivated me to continue writing. This has been an awesome project to be a part of and I'm amazed that its finally over. Cheers, y'all

Love you 💙

Gwen

In the grand Survivor Rankdown Tradition, it's time for the Rankies Awards to be awarded!

(insert dramatic music here)

Shortly before Endgame began, I opened up nominations for multiple different categories. I winnowed each category down to a pool of 3 or 4 finalists, and opened it up for voting.

There were 25 voters, but voting was optional in each category. Still, most people voted in all of them, so that was legit.

Without further ado, let's go through the categories and the winners! I will post the top two vote-getters for most categories, as well as their voting percentage.

Best Write-Up

2^nd place: Chelsea Townsend, by scorcherkennedy (32%)

1^st place: Scot Pollard, by CSteino (36%)

Funniest Write-Up

2^nd place: Christine Shields-Markoski, by GwenHarper (36%)

1^st place: JP Hilsabeck, by scorcherkennedy (40%)

Most Unique Write-Up

2^nd place: Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien 1.0, by GwenHarper (33.3%)

1^st place: Christine Shields-Markoski, by GwenHarper (41.7%)

Hottest Take on a Character

2^nd place: qngff on Jon "Jonny Fairplay" Dalton 1.0 (32%)

1^st place: qngff on Jessie Camacho (36%)

For this next category, I only went with three nominations (the people with the most nominations), since going with four or higher felt really awkward (and putting all 7 up would heavily dilute the vote).

Favorite Ranker

Winner: scorcherkennedy (42.9%)

Best Power Usage

2^nd place: scorcherkennedy vote-stealing Andrew Savage 2.0 (29.2%)

1^st place: CSteino idoling Jon "Jonny Fairplay" Dalton 1.0 (37.5%)

This category was tied, so I used a tiebreaker to resolve the vote, the methodology for which is explained here.

Favorite Spectator

2^nd place: JAniston8393 (37.5%; lost tiebreaker)

1^st place: WaluigiThyme (37.5%; won tiebreaker)

Best Bamboozle

2^nd place: scorcherkennedy getting Andrew Savage 2.0 to Endgame (44%)

1^st place: qngff and the saga of Jessie Camacho (48%)

Character that got way too high in SRV

2^nd place: Andrew Savage 2.0 (32%)

1^st place: Tina Wesson 1.0 (40%)

There was a tie in this category, but it was for second place, so I'll list them both here.

Character cut way too early in SRV

2^nd place (tie): Erik Cardona and Kelley Wentworth 2.0 (20.8%)

1^st place: Lex van den Berghe 1.0 (41.7%)

and now for the most important question of them all

🍌 or 🍆?

Loser: 🍆 (48%)

Winner: 🍌 (52%)

Thanks for your participation in voting, and thanks for following along with Survivor Rankdown V! If you have any specific complaints or remarks about my handling of the Rankies, feel free to leave them here.

#1: Sean Rector

/u/vulture_couture:

Sean Rector has become a bit of an emblem for discussions of race on Survivor and for good reason. The show has never been as honest about race and its effects in game and their portrayal as it has been when it comes to Sean and Vee, the dynamic duo that was mainly a duo because people just assumed they would be regardless based on race. There's no way to discuss Sean and his impact on Survivor and why he's become such a beloved, iconic figure for the more hardcore fans of the show without talking about the general way racism influences a game like Survivor and its more insidious effects in the game and in the fandom.

But even taking those issues away, Sean is just a great, dynamic character to watch. He's funny as hell, he's combative and doesn't shy away from a conflict, his voting confessional for John at the F9 is just such a crowning moment of glory for what's already a historic moment on Survivor and there's just so much that Sean does well it's incredible. He's not a perfect character, however, and there are certain things that bother me about him a little, like he seems fairly sexist towards people like Sarah or Neleh, but overall I'm happy he got his time in the sun here.

/u/scorcherkennedy:

A Survivor swiss army knife. He deviates between comic relief, righteous anger and much needed social commentary while always staying true to character and remaining entertaining at all times. There may not be a person on the show that we've seen more sides of and it adds up to an arc and story of real depth.

/u/xerop681:

The man, the myth, the legend - that’s an overused pre-tense, but in the case of describing Sean Rector… it works. Sean as a character has aged like fine wine: to this day still hilarious as hell, and relevant as hell too, hell, maybe even more relevant now than ever.

Sean is like, the perfect blend between comedic and serious: often linking together his humor with his reliance on race. The Marquesas morning show, his opening confessional about Sarah riding in like Cleopatra, and his day trip with Paschal are DEFINITELY some of the funniest moments on survivor. Obviously his voting confessional for John at his boot is also iconic… “Checkmate bruh, thought you had me. That’s why any time you go to Vegas, bet on black. We still gonna get chicken and waffles when all this is over.” Which displays not only Sean’s clever sense of humor but his emphasis on race so… two for one special!

Obviously Sean being an underdog who, despite overthrowing the majority in the first majority overthrow ever, is never really in a good position, he falls short. It’s a really bittersweet ending, and I mean really bitter. It reminds me of the ending of the movie BlackKklansman which, if you haven’t seen it yet, look away, i’m about to spoil it. Being a Spike Lee movie obviously the whole film is very racey, and there’s the obvious tale of the main character, Ron Stallworth, conquering the racism that surrounds him despite being up against really stacked odds and defeating the bad guy(s), the KKK, and ending up with the girl he loves. It’s actually a really inspiring and (generally) positive film till the very end, even if there’s somewhat of a bittersweet ending that I won’t dive into. And, again, without spoilers, i’ll say that the actual closing shot comes in, and it makes it feel like all that effort our main character put in to overcome adversity and make a change was just wasted, thrown away… like the equivalent of reality knocking at the door and saying “heyo, i’m still here!”. That is… kind of how I feel about the episode “A Tale of Two Cities” as far as Sean’s arc though, like the exact same thing: after a whole season of conquering adversity, surviving against all odds… there’s reality knocking at the door again, enacted by Paschal, the racist judge, being able to survive over Sean. It feels like a punch in the gut, it really really does, to get to see Paschal survive over Sean after everything that happened. But you know what, as I said… that’s reality! And it’s pretty damn accurate when you consider survivor as a social experiment that reflects our society, that a person like Sean wouldn’t be able to seal the deal and win.

Obviously I skipped over basically everything else about Sean for this blurb, mainly because i’m confident that /u/CSteino will put out an amazing writeup that says everything I would say… but gosh, Sean truly is amazing. The issues he brought to play in Marquesas were not only relevant back then but still are today. And as I said, he’s still the funniest survivor ever. I highly recommend his recent RHAP interview with T-Bird for anyone looking to get a dose of your classic Sean.

/u/JM1295:

A character like Sean feels so rare and special today. I can't imagine how modern Survivor would handle such a complex character like Sean today. From his goofing around on Maraamu to his epic fights with John Carroll to his reward with Paschal as well as the very honest and articulate discussion of race he brought on the show, Sean packs such a punch.

/u/GwenHarper:

Sean is my #3 of all time, and despite that I always feel like he is too low. While I do have Natalie and Ami higher, I almost hold Sean to be more sacred. His place in the lore and cannon of survivor is unique and as of yet untouched. Sean is one of three characters I have ever seen on survivor that have challenged me to not be complacent and instead strive to be a better person. There should be no question that he has earned his spot here.

/u/qngff:

Personal Endgame Ranking: 5

Personal Overall Ranking: 15

Just one spot outside my personal endgame, I’m very glad Sean made it. He’s seriously such a fantastic narrator and brings out the best in everyone around him. His partnership with Vecepia is one of my favorites in the show’s history. I also love what he brought to Marquesas in terms of social commentary, specifically about race relations in America. It’s not a topic often addressed on television shows nowadays, so to see that on one of the most massive television shows in the world at the time is even know fantastic and necessary. He’s a certifiable Survivor legend.

/u/CSteino:

Sean Rector is back in endgame.

Just typing that sentence out makes me smile. The fact that Sean hadn’t made an endgame since SRII was the #1 thing I wanted to fix coming into this rankdown so long ago, and it did happen. He’s a character that means so much to me personally and to others as well, so having him finally make it back here just feels right.

There’s so much I could say about Sean to justify why he’s an endgamer, but at the same time I could probably just say “He’s an endgamer because he’s amazing” and it would still accomplish that justification. Obviously I won’t do that, but I could!

Sean is one of those characters who, for the most part, has really stood the test of time, which is quite telling to the quality of his character considering his involvement with Survivor. He only played one time, he was never brought back and never was really a contender for a returnee season in a way where he got buzz that he might be back, and has pretty much removed himself from the Survivor community entirely. Up until a recent interview with T-Bird on RHAP, Sean had been completely off the grid from the Survivor community for a long time.

I think it’s great that Sean has stayed in people’s minds no matter how long it’s been since his only appearance. Though I do think that a lot of talk about him was and somewhat still is really reductive, especially before that interview on RHAP. A lot of Sean mentions on places like r/survivor are just pointing out that he’s really funny and that has always felt like a disservice to Sean to me.

Like yes Sean is hilarious and for my money is probably the funniest character ever, it’s not just his humor that puts him like Top 5 or Top 10 or endgame for so many. What makes him so unique and such a fantastic character is how complex, three-dimensional, and special of a person he is, and how the show embraces that and allows Sean to be who he is. They don’t hide anything about his character, they don’t sugarcoat anything, they just allow him to be the raw, real Sean and he ends up all the better for it.

So you have Sean, and then you look at all this stuff he has going for him as a character and it’s so easy to show just why he’s one of the best the show has ever had. One of the best casting choices in the history of the show, arguably THE best casting choice ever. One of the funniest to ever play, with so many amazing moments that never fail to crack me up. One of the most complex characters ever, with a story that is so raw and so real and hits so many awesome beats. One of the best characters ever in terms of dynamic relationships with his castmates. And of course, one of the best delves into religion on the show, and the absolute best delve into racism and implicit bias on Survivor there ever has been.

I could sit here and just go down his story episode by episode and talk about what it all means for his character, but I already did that with Swan 2.0 and even though doing that with Sean would still produce a very thorough analysis of his character, I also feel like just discussing his content episode by episode wouldn’t really be doing him justice. So what I’m gonna do is cover all of what makes him so special in it’s own section.

#Part 1: DJ Retty Rec

If being one of the funniest to ever play is what the vast majority remember about him the most, I might as well cover it first. Sean is definitely remembered for being a fantastic comedic character, and for good reason. He always has a wisecrack or a sarcastic remark to almost anyone or anything that happens during the season, and he has so many beloved moments because of that humor and quick-thinking ability to fire off a joke at the best times.

What puts him above so many other fantastic comedic characters for me is that Sean is so charismatic and so fun to listen to that hearing his commentary on just about anything is entertaining, and because he has so many different approaches to comedy that makes his jokes so varied and none ever feel old or kind of just plays off of jokes he already made. Courtney is fantastic at putdowns, and Sean can do putdowns, he can be self-deprecating in a way that is actually really charming, he can do situational humor, and most importantly he has expert comedic timing to make it all work. He’s so funny and there are so many jokes he makes throughout that become legendary.

I mean, his introduction to us on the show is him making jokes about Sarah being Cleopatra, doing nothing as her servants row her to shore while she flaunts herself off. It’s one of the most famous character introductions ever and it gives us this idea immediately of who Sean is. He’s got plenty of other great jokes at the expense of others throughout the season, like the moment when he just takes Neleh to town in confessional after she offers them the single mint she saved for them, made even funnier by the context that Sean and Paschal went out of their way to sneak food home for everyone the reward directly previous to this one. And he never feels overtly mean or malicious about it either, in all of this stuff Sean always comes across like he’s having fun and just being himself which is great.

He’s got even more fantastic comedic moments in terms of responding to situations he’s in or his tribe is in or just reacting to the daily toil of life on the island, where his quick wit and great sense of humor really shine the most. One of the best ones, that I don’t think gets mentioned enough, is how after Rotu 2.0 loses a reward challenge which had a big meal on the line. They get back to camp and John tells them how losing the reward is better for them since all that food would have demolished their stomachs after eating so little. Sean hears this and retreats to confessionals and talks about how much he wanted that reward in a way that only Sean could, and he says “I still think that chicken would have been the bomb. They said ‘you would crap your pants’... Well what else we got out here but nature and opportunity?”. The line absolutely kills me every time and it’s one of his funniest moments.

There are plenty of other moments like this too. During Jury’s Out, when Sean realizes how the coconut chop challenge is going, he uses it as a moment to wake up the players strategically and get them to realize that this is how the rest of the game would go, but he also goes about it in the funniest way, making it another great moment. Like when Vee takes two hits immediately after he goes out“AW there’s a CONSPIRACY going on y’all! I’m calling Johnny Cochran if somebody hit Vee!” and then after Paschal knocks Vee out of the challenge he goes “Where’s Johnny Cochran? I want him on the phone right now!”. It’s just another great moment.

Then there’s the Radio Show, which is of course famous and for my money probably the funniest scene(s) the show has ever made. Sean is one of the ringleaders of the Radio Show, so of course both times the Radio Show happens Sean is great in it. He just shines through in these moments and his personality and humor really show the most in these off the cuff scenes, especially in the second Radio Show, like when he goes “these balls were ICE CUBES!” or when he goes off on his Al Sharpton rant after Hunter says the black no-nos are worse, which is just great. I love how immediate his reaction to it is as well, he was up in an instant and everyone is already cracking up as soon as he yells out “RINNNNG” and then starts talking. It never fails to get me laughing every time I watch it.

But yeah Sean is hilarious. I think the best way for me to really just sell this is that there’s a scene in the beginning of Jury’s Out that Sean is the leading man of. It’s a scene that goes on for over a minute, and it’s all about Sean farting, and it’s actually hysterical. It’s also the very first scene of the episode. They liked this scene so much, that they opened with it. Sean is so funny that he’s able to make a scene entirely about fart humor work, as an episode’s opening scene.

#Part 2: Our Island Family

I’ve said before that I think one of the hallmarks of a truly excellent character is how they interact with their castmates and whether or not they really enhance and improve the characters around them. Sean is one of the people who really excels in this category, as he makes everyone else so much better in so many different ways.

Again, this is something that is highlighted about Sean’s character from the very beginning and it persists throughout the entire season, down until the minute he leaves the game. In the premiere they explore this dynamic and relationship between Peter and Sean a fair bit and those interactions gives Peter an extra layer to his character that makes him more than just an OTT first boot, giving him some depth to make him one of the best first boots in the series.

They’re both highly devout and faithful and you see that almost immediately as Sean pretty much collapses into Peter’s arms after they finally reach the Maraamu beach and the two of them pray together and clearly it’s a very big moment for both of them, even though Rob calls them both fruit loops. The two then have a nice little scene together on the raft where they bond and Peter talks about how nice it is to have real conversations with people and how he’s “chillin’” with Sean and how he wants Sean to teach him Harlem stuff <3. It’s not one of his most important relationships but it’s just this idea that Sean really adds to any character he interacts with.

I think the dynamic between Hunter and Sean is also another very important part of Maraamu and even though it’s not as highlighted as Hunter vs Rob is, it’s still a very key part of that story. Rob may be the main one planning behind the scenes to get Hunter out and comments on how Hunter is playing the wrong way with three Alpha Males there in Hunter, Rob, and Sean, it’s Sean who is more openly defiant towards Hunter and says “I’m an alpha male too. I don’t need a daddy.” It ends up working quite well as a back and forth where Rob is the schemer trying to get Hunter out while Sean is the one complaining and being much more public in how Hunter has rubbed him the wrong way, which makes the dynamic work well.

Speaking of Rob, I think Sean and Rob have a great back and forth during the season and really play well off of each other here. Like I said, Rob is much more of a behind the scenes manipulator while Sean is always going to speak his mind, but the two come together to really become a fun and dynamic duo who constantly stir the pot, take their tribemates to task in confessional, and just generally be nuisances and fight from the bottom. They team up multiple times to do lots of damage to the Rotu 4 whether it be during the swap or during the merge episode, and both of them really put that initial dent into the alliance that really allows for the events of Jury’s Out to happen, and overall they’re one of my favorite duos on the season.

Another extremely important relationship for Sean throughout the season is John. They have one of the most complex relationships of the season on a season where there are so many well-developed and strong relationships. Watching the way the dynamic between the two of them develops from when they first meet at the swap until when Sean tells John to always bet on black is really fantastic because of how it real it all feels. Even though it isn’t the most high-visibility relationship, it’s one that feels well-done anyway because of how dynamic it is.

Sean is jockeying as this underdog throughout pretty much all of the time he spends in the game with John, while John is power player and leader of the dominant Rotu 4 alliance. They could not be in more different positions, and even though they have this rivalry you can tell they still have this immense respect for one another as people. They know the other is a smart, strong person and they even bond over their shared experiences of being somewhat isolated due to their race in Sean’s case and their sexuality in John’s case, which Sean talks about following their argument with Rob in True Lies. You can tell that deep down the two have this very strong connection even if their views on the game don’t line up.

That argument in True Lies really highlights that, because when Sean finds out that John isn’t going to stick with that alliance of 7 made during the Gabe boot, you can see how hurt he is and sounds when he asks John why he didn’t bring it up to him man to man, because Rob was the one throwing John under the bus. Sean comments on how a younger him would have responded even worse than him, and how he feels hurt by John betraying him like that. That dynamic is what makes the fight scene really great and one of my favorites of the season.

Then following the Rob boot, John is getting really cocky during Jury’s Out and doing things like blowing Sean kisses as he goes to knock him out, while Sean smacks the kiss on his ass, highlighting the still lighthearted nature of them being buddies still, and Sean returns the favor and guns for John hard during immunity and to get him voted out, which he does succeed. And when Sean does finally go up to successfully vote for John and he gives the famous bet on black confessional, it’s just a fantastic way to cap off their relationship as Sean finally gets the best of John and sends him packing.

Then you’ve got Sean’s relationship with Paschal, which is super crucial to making him one of the best characters ever. I absolutely love this relationship when it comes to exploring Sean’s complexities and even Paschal’s complexities to an extent, because even though Paschal does show himself to be a racist during some of these episodes I think it allows for so much fantastic stuff to happen between the characters as a whole, as well as between Sean and him.

The two are from entirely different walks of life and yet they still seem to connect and really bond during their time together, which especially becomes apparent in the reward they share during the Final 8 episode. The scene is so powerful as is, but then you also get these two vastly different people experiencing this rich moment full of vibrance and Marquesan culture and you can see just how much having the experience moves them. The conversation they have following the reward finishes right before they go back to camp almost brings them both to tears, which is really. And of course throughout you get the two really delving into this idea of the other person being much more than what they originally thought, as Sean starts to see just how kind and loving this southern judge can be, and Paschal starts to see just how intelligent and articulate this teacher from harlem can be.

It’s of course another excellent scene on the season but it sets up the events in Sean’s boot episode so well, where Paschal is at his most uncomfortable with his comments like Sean and/or Vee winning being a disgrace and his complete dismissal of Sean’s claim that it’s not fair that Vee and Sean are being treated as if they’re the same as Paschal and Neleh in terms of an alliance, and all that great stuff that we’ll talk about. The relationship is super complex and does feel very well-done for a dynamic that becomes so important in the F5, and I think it’s very much worth commenting on.

Finally though, we get into my favorite relationship of Sean’s, which is his just beautiful and amazing connection with Vee. It’s not necessarily as complex and/or up-and-down as Sean’s relationships with people like John or Paschal are, but it’s still very important and I just adore it. The two of them are two highly intelligent black people who are both intensely devout and very aware of societal standards and how black people are at a very different standard than that of white people. You can see how the two of them bond over their shared experiences of faith and race throughout as they become very close friends on the season (and still are to this day), and even though they have these connections, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to be working together and they don’t, as Vee works against Sean a couple times and that becomes Sean’s point at the F5 episode.

However, the two still get very close and you can tell just how much it means for them to have each other there to share the experience with and talk about stuff that they couldn’t really with others, whether that be in terms of their faith or their race. I also just love the contrast between the two of them in terms of how they go about their business during the season, with Vee being lowkey and UTR and deadly behind the scenes, while Sean is loud and public and doesn’t really care about who he rubs the wrong way a lot of times, which makes for a great comparison between the two. But the relationship between them feels so real and raw that I just love it and think it’s probably my favorite part of the season.

Overall though, I mean you can see just based on how much I wrote here that Sean is such a great character and has so many rich interactions with so much of the cast and makes so many of them so much better, a mark of his excellence.

#Part 3: I Can Do All Things Through Christ

So like I talked about in my Russell writeup, religion is one of the things that I think can be one of the most compelling studies, whether it be in a group of people or a person individually. Russell is a great look into this, but so is Sean. Sean’s faith is a huge part of who he is as a person and since they portray Sean as so close to who he is, his faith becomes a big part of his character and is present throughout the season.

Just like the majority of Sean’s best character traits, you see his intense faith and religious beliefs as early as his first scenes. Like I mentioned in the blurb about Peter and Sean’s relationship, the two of them quickly bond and get close over their faith. They support each other and pray together as they first reach the Maraamu camp and the moment is small but you can already tell how powerful it is for Sean, how much devotion he has to his faith.

When they get all of their stuff off of the raft after they hit the beach, Sean falls over on the ground and is just laying there. He goes into a confessional and talks about how indescribable that moment was for him, how it was beyond words. He talks about how he has never been in the ocean before. He says it makes him emotional thinking about the miracles God has performed for him, and how the tribe didn’t do it on their own, that they had God’s hand under them guiding the raft.

Him and Peter then pray and they’re knee-deep in the ocean and Sean is thanking God for helping them and making sure they all made it safely, and he’s physically crying as he prays, and he says “We can do all things through Christ”. Immediately, you can see just how much Sean’s religion means to him and just how devout he is. It’s such an intense thing that I don’t even really know how to describe it better, and I don’t think it can ever be done justice through text just how powerful it is to see how moved Sean is by this experience.

Sean’s relationship with Vecepia is another really great look into just how devout of a person he is, and even though the relationship between the two of them is much more complex than just the shared faith of the two, the two do bond over being very devout people and they share multiple moments together that explores the religious beliefs of the two.

There are multiple times that the two of them pray together, and something as simple as how immersed and focused into their prayer they are makes these moments really powerful. Just by watching the two of them share moments of prayer we can see what God means to them. One moment that sticks out to me is during the merge, after the tribe is named and they’re all on the same beach, Vecepia, Sean, John, and Rob pray together to thank God for allowing them to make it to the next stage of the game and thanking him for making sure everyone made it safely. During this moment, you can hear in how Vecepia speaks that she is so thankful and very happy to praise God for helping them. And Sean is right there with her, eyes closed and unmoving while clearly immersed in the prayer, contrasted to Rob who is standing there, rocking back and forth, eyes open, and smirking.

But I think the most powerful moment for Sean, when it comes to displaying his faith, is his reaction to his winning the Final 5 reward challenge, with the car. The challenge is a culmination of all of the challenges they’ve done so far throughout the postmerge, and pretty much the whole time it’s a blowout. Sean runs away with the challenge and has no competition from anyone. But it’s his reaction after he wins that I think is so fantastic.

When Sean wins the challenge, he is so excited and moved to have won the challenge, and he displays it immediately. He celebrates and yells “God IS good! God is so good!” before moving towards Jeff and then wrapping Jeff in this bear hug and yelling “I can do all things through Christ!” while being moved to tears and slowly falling to the ground before saying “God is good” and then sitting up before Vee comes over to give him a hug.

Again, this is a moment that is so hard to describe in text but it is, in my eyes, one of the most powerful moments in the history of the show. It’s so raw and emotional, such a fantastic moment for Sean and it never fails to get me on the verge of crying every time I see it.

Especially when it comes to Sean as a character, I don’t think it matters whether or not you agree with Sean’s religious views or anything like that. I’m not a particularly religious person but watching Sean and his intense faith is one of the most powerful things I’ve seen on Survivor. It’s so raw and so compelling, and it adds so much to his character to watch him be this devout person who has such a strong conviction when it comes to his religion.

#Part 4: The Whole Race Thing

This is something that I’ve wanted to talk about in a writeup for a long time, but it’s also something that I know is going to be very difficult for me to talk about all the same. The discussion of race and racism in Marquesas is my absolute favorite part of Survivor ever, and it’s always stuck out to me as so well-crafted and so intriguing. On the same note though, I’m not really someone who is an authority on this kind of issue. I’m a 19 year old straight white guy, what kind of oppression have I dealt with in my life? Really not much at all. So I want to acknowledge that I’m not attempting to be an authority figure on the subject when I discuss it.

But I think the discussion of race and racial identity and racism is such an important and crucial part of Sean’s character, it wouldn’t really be a writeup if I didn’t cover it.

Sean is very steadfast in his faith and his religious beliefs and he knows who he is when it comes to that stuff. But when it comes to race, I think he’s even more steadfast and outspoken about it. Dealing with the implicit bias and stereotypes that come with being a black person has been something Sean has had to deal with his whole life, and his views on those issues is really ingrained into who he is as a person. We see that a lot throughout the season and it really gives us a great look into Sean, not just as a complex character, but as a complex human.

Sean discusses race multiple times in multiple different scenarios and lights throughout the season. There are times when he’s light-hearted about it, like when he makes a little joke about brothers from the hood not going swimming when they first arrive at Maraamu. There are the times when he talks about his race and how it affects who he is and how he’s been raised and how he sees the world, like in the situation where Sean talks about how he and John have bonded over the shared experience of being black and being gay in society and how it has affected them. Then there are the times where he discusses racism and bias and how that affects him, not only in his daily life but in the game of Survivor from Day 1.

These moments when Sean talks to us about racism are some of the most compelling moments in all of Survivor. It’s an issue that clearly means so much to him, and he isn’t afraid to take a stand about it. He knows he may get backlash for it and it may upset people, but he doesn’t care because it means so much to him. It’s present throughout the season and there are multiple times when Sean gives some commentary on it but it’s absolutely at its best during his boot episode.

A Tale of Two Cities is my favorite episode in Survivor history bar none, and it’s such a powerful episode as well as the perfect end to Sean’s character. At this point in the game, the final 5 is Sean, Vee, Kathy, Paschal, and Neleh, and Kathy is pretty quickly identified as the swing vote between the two pairs. The only issue is that one pair is much closer than the other.

Paschal and Neleh have had a pact to never vote each other out, and are essentially a bloc of two votes knowing that one will probably never vote differently than the other. Sean and Vee, on the other hand, are the only African-Americans on the season and have bonded to become very close friends. The difference is that Sean and Vee have never pledged to not vote the other, and Vee has even voted differently than Sean at the merge to send Boston Rob home.

Throughout the episode we’re hearing commentary from both Sean and Vee that the two pairs are getting unfairly viewed as the same thing when that isn’t the case, while Paschal, Neleh, and even Kathy point out that they are a close pair and don’t really acknowledge how different the two pairs are in terms of their loyalty.

Paschal, Neleh, and Kathy comment multiple times on it not being a race thing and accusing Sean and Vee of pulling the race card, when throughout the episode we see that isn’t true. Neleh says she’d be “puky sick” if Sean and Vee were in the Top 3 with Kathy. Kathy says Sean and Vee made it a race thing that she wasn’t even thinking about by pulling the race card during their conversation at the beginning of the episode. Paschal is condescending and dismissive of Vee and especially Sean the entire episode, saying extremely questionable things such as “it runs deeper” when referring to Sean and Vee, or commenting to Neleh that “it’s like you owe them something” when Neleh tells him about Sean and Vee trying to get Kathy on their side.

Of course, a lot of this stuff is very questionable at best to outright racist at worst. The five also have a very intense and heated conversation at the fire during the night where Sean and Vee continue to defend themselves as not being in the same category as Paschal and Neleh when it comes to their “alliance”, while Paschal and Neleh continue to just say they have an alliance even when confronted with evidence that the two haven’t worked together all game. It’s a very compelling yet dark conversation and Sean especially is very outspoken about reading between the lines and understanding the subtext, that he and Vee are being linked more because of them both being black rather than because they’re such close allies.

Then the tribal that happens after Kathy wins immunity is similarly intense and continues to kind of prove Sean’s point that the two of them are being linked for reasons beyond just “they’re voting together”. Him and Paschal argue for a majority of the tribal while Sean makes points about both the alliance of Paschal and Neleh and the connection between him and Vee. Paschal is still extremely condescending and rather gross during this tribal, telling Sean to just listen once in a while instead of his mouth, or that he will point the finger at Sean when Sean says not to point the finger at him. It’s very intense and Sean is clearly very passionate about it and at this point it’s clear that he’s right, but by now the damage has seemingly been done.

They go to vote and in a fair world Kathy does decide to side with Sean and Vee here, because Paschal and Neleh are just too close as allies. Unfortunately though, it isn’t a fair world and Sean gets voted out, his own game being the sacrifice necessary to prove he was right. It’s tragic but, at the same time, I think it’s the perfect end to Sean’s run on the show. He’s outspoken and knows what he’s talking about, especially when it comes to race, and that tough to swallow truth becomes the reason he goes. Him and Vee got tagged as this inseparable duo because they were two black people who had a bond, and as much as they said it wasn’t true, the majority didn’t listen. He was right.

I think what I love the most about this episode, and the discussion of racism with Sean’s character as a whole, is how well it’s handled. Like I said, Sean is outspoken and he can yell and get intense at times about the things he’s so passionate in, race being one of them. There was easily the opportunity for the show to turn Sean into this OTT angry man, race-card pulling guy who is trying to claim racism when it isn’t there. That would have been easy for the show to do, and in today’s Survivor I don’t doubt that it’s exactly what they’d do. But they don’t here. Here, they take the time to cover a difficult issue, to cover a sensitive topic that very easily could have been avoided and swept under the rug. They allow it to become a complex theme and an argument with multiple sides. They let Sean be a complex character with complex characteristics and real human qualities that makes this content as compelling as it is. And I wouldn’t change it at all.

#Part 5: So What?

There’s so much I could say here to wrap this all up, but I hope the writeup has done a good enough job of showing all the sides that I find so important to Sean’s character and what makes him into such a fantastic and important character to me. I could probably write so much more but this writeup is already really sprawling.

In all, this endgame has a lot of fantastic characters here. Half of my personal endgame is here. 12 out of 14 are in my Top 50. This group is an absolutely excellent group of characters, and I don’t think any of them come close to Sean in terms of what I consider to be the best character. He’s such a powerful character to me, one that means so much to me in terms of what he does with his time on the show, and someone who I can’t help but look up to. He’s a fantastic person, so smart and yet isn’t afraid to stand up for what he believes in, and that resonates in his character so much because the show allows Sean to be Sean. And that’s what makes him as great as he is.

There is so much to his character, so much to who he is as a person that there’s no way that I couldn’t say he’s the best ever. He’s got so much going for him. He’s hilarious. He’s excellent in every interaction. He’s one of the most complex to every play. He’s absolutely excellent and an endgamer multiples times over in my mind, once for each of the many facets of his character. I can’t think of a better winner for this Rankdown, and I sincerely hope Sean pulls out the victory.

”Checkmate brah. Thought you had me. So anytime you go to Vegas, bet on black. But we definitely gonna have chicken and waffles when this whole thing is done.”

vulture_couture: 8

CSteino: 1

scorcherkennedy: 9

xerop681: 1

JM1295: 6

GwenHarper: 3

qngff: 5

Average Placement: 4.714285714

#2: Ami Cusack 1.0

/u/vulture_couture:

There is more complexity to Ami than yo almost any other Survivor character and not all of it is always self-evident. You can easily reduce her to the brutal ice queen image some segments of Vanuatu edit and the fanbase push on her but then you'd be losing on so much of what makes Ami so interesting and important.

It's rare that Survivor goes too explicit about the topic of gender. Amazon tried it and ended up with a surface level reading of #girlpower vs #boyswillbeboys. Vanuatu, however, goes hard, and a lot of the reason why would be that it had Ami, someone who explicitly cared about the idea of Women on Survivor as one of her main agendas in the game. The core idea of Ami is always love and she loves more intensely than anybody else, whether that is romantic, friendly or even abstract. She's not perfect, of course: she gets callous and cold when she thinks people are trying to cross her and her love is often that of a benevolent dictator, predicated on you loving her back and giving yourself to her causes unconditionally. For being the Ice Queen, you can see the blood pulsating through her veins at all times. And Vanuatu even allows you to see the icy veneer to completely melt when Twila blasts some spotlight on it at FTC and ultimately judges Ami not hard and cold enough.

The ultimate tragedy of Ami on Survivor is that she tried to predicate her evil empire on love and sisterhood and as such it was bound to fail in face of the cold, hard people standing in front of her acting 100% on self-interest. Ami is like that moment in Lord of the Rings where Galadriel considers taking the Ring for herself and being the cruel and beautiful queen complete with its own denouement. One of the most important and impactful stories Survivor ever told.

/u/CSteino:

Ami is easily one of the best to ever grace the show and, by my estimation, the best character on a season with four Top 25 characters. She’s one of the most complex villains ever, a perfect antagonist for the season, one of the most purely powerful people ever on the show, as well as a screen presence few others can match, making Ice Queen Ami an easy endgame choice.

/u/scorcherkennedy:

Very unique character who plays a necessary role very well in Vanuatu. Do think she gets overshadowed by people like Chris, Twila and Eliza and she's someone who brings more of a vibe to the season than specific moments. I respect Ami as a character without having a real affinity for her.

/u/xerop681:

Just an absolute star. While Sean will always be my favorite Survivor character, I do think from a narrative perspective, Ami has my favorite survivor story ever. She finds herself rising to power for being an ice queen, brutal to people like Bubba/Lisa and whacking them like a gangster, but also being compassionate and loving to her allies like Eliza/Julie. She soars like a phoenix, until eventually her Achilles heel, her ice queen side, gets the best of her, and she’s shot out of the sky by a perfectly executed high school. It sounds like a pretty standard survivor story, doesn’t it? Like it also sounds great but also like it was pretty simply written…

But the beauty is in the execution, and with Ami, it really is beautiful. Ami’s a natural and she sells every minute of screen time she gets, like it feels like it’s almost impossible for her not to be engaging? Maybe that’s because she has an incredible voice. She has some of the most dynamic relationships of the season, like I already kind of pointed out how incredible the Eliza-Ami relationship is, and aside from that she basically has a dynamic relationship with EVERYONE from her Yasur majority <3. And… despite being an “ice cold” villain, she also is really humanized and someone that I kind of end up rooting for? Like obviously the narrative of Ami being blindsided because of her coldness is great especially the way it links into the Eliza plot (Best survivor relationship ever, no question) but also there’s a bit of sadness because Ami is just such a complex character that despite looking like a foot print for ice cold villains she can also make you cry.

Idk, I'm glad I don’t have to do an Ami writeup because it’s really hard to be all articulate without just gushing about how good she is, so gosh is what I will do. Gosh… just one of the most incredible casting choices to ever come out of Survivor and one of my favorite TV characters ever… and I watch way too much TV so that’s high praise!

/u/JM1295:

What a completely and totally complex, vulnerable, and layered character who is a perfect representation for Vanuatu. It feels weird to only have one character from Vanuatu make endgame this time around, but Ami is absolutely the best choice. It would have been very easy for her to be pigeonholed into the villainess role and just be edited and seen as this ice queen. What we got though was so much more interesting and better.

We saw Ami relish in power, we also saw her desperately fight to stay alive. We saw her cut Lisa with such ease, while also seeing her comfort her friends. We saw her clear disdain for the men, while also seeing her compassion for Chris. These contrasts never clash either, but rather build up to this fantastic arc of having a cold front, but showing absolute love and humanity throughout her stint on Vanuatu. It's so incredibly fitting that her downfall ends up being her compassion as well. Been my #1 for a good 3 years now and hoping she takes the crown this year. <3

/u/qngff:

Personal Endgame Ranking: 13

Personal Overall Ranking: 128

Unlike a lot of the characters I ranked low on the endgame ticket, Ami is one I actually can see the arguments for. The main problem I have with Ami is less with Ami herself and more of her role on Vanuatu, a season I’m not that fond of. I don’t think she really gets her chance to shine in Vanuatu as much as she deserved. She’s still got a cool story and background, but for whatever reason, she just never clicked for me like she did for so many others.

/u/GwenHarper:

Ami Cusack 1.0 (Vanuatu, 6th)

I want to talk about failure. In the lowest points in our life, we might ask what its all for. How can it be that bad things happen to good people? What happens when you give something everything you have and it isn’t enough? As children, most of us are taught that the world is ours to control. “You will achieve your dreams. Anyone can be president, it could be you.”

Especially growing up in America, you are steeped in the ideological pathos of the American Dream. Not only can you be rich, but you can do it by pUlLiNg YoUrSeLf Up ByE yOuR bOoTsTrApS. Hell, you grow up thinking that you can be the superman, you’ll solve a murder plot in high school, and escape quicksand in time for a healthy dinner. The world is full of adventure and opportunity and the only thing stopping you from living your best life is bloody well taking it. The only problem is, while so much of life is in your control, none of it matters if you fail. Failure can happen for any reason, but sometimes, it's just you.

That’s been the hardest thing to learn while growing up. For fucks sake I am 21 years old and I feel lost, like I’m not ready for the responsibility of finding my own way. I’m still the little girl begging my mom for both barbies and hot wheels. I don’t know how to make my dreams come true. So much of life is just trying to be happy. Forget solving a murder, be proud of yourself for being able to finally fold the laundry you did nearly two weeks ago.

Look, I’m probably being grim here. Existential crises aside, failure is tough. When we watch survivor, we watch a collection of stories. But so much more than just stories, we watch hopes and dreams. Everyone wants something, but unless its attention, almost everyone fails. The entire premise of the show is about forming your own society, destroying that society, and then being rewarded for your greed. If money is the endgame, then up to 19 other people are going to fail. Not everyone can win, that is literally the point. We watch the show as much for its failure, as for the success of the winner.

That might be partially why season winners, beloved as many may be today, are often regarded as disappointing. There is nothing wrong with their success, but the loss suffered by the other characters we have invested so much time and emotion into can be more devastating. Sometimes, the loss outweighs the win. Since then, failure is an integral part of survivor. Just look at our endgame. We have three winners and eleven losers. We have Savage, Swan, Ian, Katie, and Cirie. People whose failure to get what they wanted is among the most compelling character arcs in survivor history.

But we can’t just fail. Life is not just pain. There is so much more than what we aren’t able to take for ourselves. Often, the height of survivor is found in the little victories and triumphs the characters find despite losing. Forgive me for being a little pretentious here, but Camus was right. Getting the sisyphean boulder to the top of the hill is not the point. Simply achieving what you set out to do isn’t what will give you the greatest satisfaction. That belongs to the act itself of pushing the boulder. You learn, you struggle, and when you get to the top of the hill and have the briefest moment of respite before it falls back down again, that slight cathartic clarity is what will satisfy you. You have learned, grown, and achieved. It isn’t just to have the boulder sit at the top of the hill but to push it there yourself. If you are someone who is wondering why the hell Tom and Ian and Katie are doing all in endgame together, that is why. Because, for example, of the satisfaction we get from Ian’s redemption is infinitely more than marvelling at the tragedy of his loss. Despite that, you cannot achieve something like that without having failed in the first place.

So, failure is integral to absolutely everything. When we see Ami in Micronesia, as I wrote about a while back, she fails spectacularly. She does so in what I find to be one of the most interesting twists on a character arc ever. She doesn’t come into the season to win, so much as to find acceptance. So when she finally achieves it, and inadvertently gives Erik the tools to throw her under the bus, she fails and succeeds at the same time. Its fucking heartbreaking, and makes for a perfect little tragic character.

Ami Cusack 1.0, however, takes the tragedy to the upper echelon with Sean and Ian. Unlike the two men, who are almost cut straight out of a greek myth, Ami is the rare tragic villain. She is someone who the edit and narrative structure of the season actively wants you to root against, but when she does fall (and boy, does she fall hard), nobody feels good about it.

One of the wonderful things about Vanuatu is how it is so good at forcing you to change your point of view. It is very, very easy to despise Ami after her rise to power. She begins with this nebulous sort of beginning where she is a friend to all and a peace-keeper in camp. Her start is that of someone who honestly would have been a hero in a season not divided by gender. She is kind and keeps the tensions between the older and younger, worker and non-worker low. At first, Ami basically seems hair detangling spray personified. That is, until the swap.

Once the swap happens, so does Ami’s heel turn. Instead of being the sweet and unassuming bi girl next door, she clutches the mantle of feminine leadership with an iron fist. Here, we begin to see what an emotional person Ami is. For as much as I’ve seen Vanuatu, I have never understood the “Ice Queen” moniker she was stuck with. Genuinely, Ami Cusack is one of the most emotional players in survivor history. Yes, she plays things relatively cool, but once real life forces itself into the game via the family photos from her dead brother and girlfriend, she fucking loses it and displays an incredible depth. When not enjoying rewards, her emotionality is front and center when voting out Travis and Lisa. Travis’ clear disloyalty to the baby Yasur 2.0 offended Ami, so she sent the amiable southern kid home even though Rory was a better option for strength and moreal. For Lisa, what doomed her was simple words, clearly not planned, that triggered Ami’s paranoia, fear, and anxiety. Bam.

I wrote earlier that it was easy for folks to despise Ami, which happens even though she hasn’t really done anything villainous other than maybe who she chose to vote out, although her reasons are relatable to someone who gets panic attacks on the regular. This is a battle of the sexes season where the man wins because the women implode. As the most powerful player in the game, this season is about Ami’s failure as much as Chris’ success. Ami, being a literal woman loving feminist who assumes the mantle of leadership and oversees the decimation of the men, is the perfect heel of the season. The same anxieties and fears Gabby Pascuzzi would simultaneously be praised and mocked for 28 seasons later were used as evidence for Ami’s villainy. Her decisions were framed as biased by her capricious dislike of men.

The editors foreshadow the season tension between Ami’s parade of feminine leadership and Chris’s submissive masculinity masterfully through the season, so at the point when the final act of the season kicks into gear and Chris begins his improbable run to the end, you have no choice but to root against Ami. What’s your other option? Hope the last man standing gets crushed and the cackling women get to split the check? Stanning Ami, understanding her or not, is very, very difficult when Chris is alone. And that is what makes Ami’s face turn all the more impactful. Here you have this woman. The Ice Queen, the villain of all villains, the second coming of Jerri. Here you have a character who is easily the best female villain since the Black Widow, and when she can finally get what she wants? She freezes. Chris’ fiance comes onto the island, and Ami’s bi heart panics at the idea of being the one to make sure her enemy fails. Because of how charming his fiance had been, and how desperate he had been to not fail her, Ami balks. It's impossible to know what would have happened had they voted out Chris at the final 7. Julie, Ami, and Leann would have had to rely on Twila having a hate boner for Eliza to fake a “consensus” vote and eliminate the swing. Once Eliza is gone, Twila and Scout follow and you have an iconic final 3 where literally any of them could have won. All Ami had to do to win was vote out Chris, but she couldn’t. She tries to play nice, and it gets her best friend blindsided, and her voted out at final six with a heartbreaking walk of shame.

What do villains do? In a good story, they usually fail. So much of human storytelling has been devoted to the triumph of good vs. evil. It is expected, but what is not broken, rarely needs to be fixed. Vanuatu, and most good seasons of survivor are often when the good guys beat the bad. Even if, like in Panama, the person who wins isn’t the hero we wanted. Ami, in her villainous prime does as villains do: she fails. The Ice Queen’s kingdom crumbles to ash. And what makes it all the more painful, is that it's because she tried to do good. It destroyed her world, but doing so regained her sympathy on the way out. She may be the villain of the season, but she loses it almost as a hero.

That is why I fucking love Ami Cusack. Honest to god, there has never been a more dynamic character. For someone to be themselves the entire time: in her case a bi girl doing her god damn best, and get to be the hero and the villain. I have never seen the editors and survivor storytellers shift someone's tone so much and still have it make sense and be satisfying. Not only is it the producers’ commendable work but her own. Vanuatu lives and dies by Ami’s choices. Yes, Twila and Chris and Rory and Eliza matter, but nothing they do does more to change the game paradigm than Ami. She is larger than life but remains a humble, vulnerable woman whose most memorable legacy is her failure.

I wanted to talk about failure, because in the lowest points in life, we might ask what the fucking point is, especially when it is by our own actions. When you look at Ami, her rise and fall, her villainy and heroism, I think you can answer that question. I love Ami, she is one of the best characters of all time because she reminds us that failure isn’t the end. Life doesn’t define you by losing, if you take the opportunity to get back up. That is why she leaves survivor as a human being and not the ice queen. Sometimes you give it everything you have and fail anyways, but it is not the end. That is what Ami teaches.

vulture_couture: 2

CSteino: 2

scorcherkennedy: 13

xerop681: 2

JM1295: 1

GwenHarper: 2

qngff: 13

Average Placement: 5.0

Tiebreaker Process:

| High/Low Removed | High/Low Removed x2 | Median :--|:--|:--|:-- Ami | 4.2 | 2.0 | 2 Jerri | 4.6 | 4.0 | 4

Ami wins 3/3 (and is higher for 4/7 people)

Our second of two ties! Again, the tiebreaker process will be revealed in the next post.

#3. Jerri Manthey 1.0

/u/CSteino:

Another character who deservedly made it back to endgame after a few years of being robbed. Jerri is the original villainess and she fills her role sooooo well, even though she really was never the villain at all. She was portrayed that way and that’s what was important, and her character here is so excellent. I am not that big on Australian Outback the season but Jerri alone makes it worth it.

/u/scorcherkennedy:

my all time favorite character. Jerri's one of the show's classic, complex, villains but she's also someone I've always found achingly sympathetic. The look on her face after Colby uses her jury question to apologize for voting out all the Kucha's breaks my heart everytime. The show wants you to hate her (for war crimes like annoying Colby or hurting Keith's ego) but Jerri's personality and narration give her so many layers and create a three dimensional character. Almost all of the intrigue from Ogakor comes from Jerri whether it's jerky-gate or her complicated relationship with Colby. And once she leaves the season fucking tanks. Few characters are as important to their seasons as Jerri is to Australia. Long may she reign at the top of my rankings.

/u/xerop681:

Jerri is one of those survivor characters that, love her or hate her, is undeniably iconic - hell, the hate she brewed during her time in the Outback only added to her being such an icon. But beyond the nostalgia glasses of “Jerri is iconic”, she still holds up as incredible: mainly because there are few Survivor characters as unique as Jerri. Without a doubt one of the greatest casting choices of all time, this snarky aspiring actress and villain really breathes life into the outback: just in general she’s a very entertaining confessionalist and player, but she also has amazing relationships with the cast surrounding her, particularly Colby, that make the pre-merge and Ogakor a really dynamic tribe.

As far as I’m concerned, The Australian Outback, or at least my interest in it, mainly dies at the final 8: and that’s largely due because Jerri was that good, so good that she was carrying the entire season on her back. After she leaves it’s just a boring kind of pagonging devoid of any interesting conflict and mostly devoid of any good storytelling, but every second with Jerri in the Outback is a tasty treat to be savoured. Also a pretty damn iconic FTC voting confessional <3

/u/JM1295:

After being the sacrificial lamb for a few rankdowns now, so excited to see Jerri take her rightful place in endgame! Looking back at Australia and Jerri's arc is so funny in how overblown hatred for Jerri was, but you are still left with a very compelling character. Very similar to Lindsey Richter, but we got to explore her motivations and layers more. With the blemishes and all, Jerri was so authentic and raw as a character. She also really drove almost all the tension and conflict in Australia and I struggle to think of a season that suffered so badly after a certain character is gone like Australia did with Jerri.

/u/GwenHarper:

It has been amazing to see Jerri’s reputation and legacy evolve over the years: from evil black widow who is literally despised by millions of people, to a tragic anti-villain who really didn’t do anything wrong other than be as in love with Colby as literally everybody was back in 2001. For someone whose villainy is relegated to being deemed not worthy by Tina and Colby, Jerri is an incredible character whether you have sympathy for her or not. She is probably the only survivor character who stays just as good and fresh while evolving with the times. What else from 2001 has aged well? Certainly not the fashion.

/u/qngff:

Personal Endgame Ranking: 11

Personal Overall Ranking: 109

A lot of people prop up Jerri as the foundation on which Australia is built and where it crumbles at her boot. I disagree with this. Actually, I hated Jerri on a firstwatch of AO, but came around on her since. She’s a huge part of why Australia is one of my favorite seasons of all time. Her dynamic with Colby is excellent and she is a huge part of what makes Tina one of the greatest characters ever to be on the show. I guess the only reason I have her outside Top 100 is her abrasiveness wearing on me at times where it didn’t for others I have higher.

/u/vulture_couture:

(Temporary placeholder from WaluigiThyme): In the interest of keeping this rankdown moving along, I am making the executive decision to post this without the writeup. It should be updated very, very soon.

(Edit from WaluigiThyme, over a year later): it wasn't lol

vulture_couture: 1

CSteino: 5

scorcherkennedy: 1

xerop681: 10

JM1295: 3

GwenHarper: 4

qngff: 11

Average Placement: 5.0

#4: Ian Rosenberger

/u/vulture_couture:

Much as I've complained about the overwhelming amount of Palau endgamers ... Ian is the one I really can't dispute. Ian is at the center of the Palau endgame and him completely falling apart is the emotional core of some of the best episodes the show has ever had. There's not much I can say about Ian here that hasn't already been said a million times. He's one of the show's best tragic characters if you want to see him one way and focus on how Tom and Katie emotionally manipulating him towards having to make impossible choices and made him feel less than human for understandable social missteps in order to advance themselves. And he's one of the show's biggest heroes if you want to see him the other way and focus on how he made what's probably an unique moral choice for Survivor endgamers and stepped away from the game to salvage his integrity and friendships. There's a lot to unpack with Ian one way or another and it's been unpacked over and over again but god damn is that some gorgeous luggage.

You could say that Ian's Survivor journey is the exploration of the limits of self-interest vs. personal values. As much as people have been complaining about others playing without morals since time immemorial whenever others made choices that went against the complainers' interests, it's rare to see someone consciously make a moral decision on Survivor by any other morality than the morality of self-interest and actively sabotage their chances of having a million dollars purely for the benefit of others. And you could argue even Ian's choices were selfish since he was ultimately just trying to salvage is own sense of self but what it is is a different kind of self-interest and the sheer drama of it could easily be considered peak Survivor. Ian absolutely deserves to be here.

/u/CSteino:

Ian is now our only five-time endgamer and even though I’d have Hatch and Fairplay ahead of him in my rankings, he is no doubt worthy of being the one. His story is dependent on the last few episodes, yes, but it doesn’t matter to me since those last few episodes are so fucking amazing that he earns endgame honors easily. Palau FIC is viewed as one of the best moments in show history for a reason.

/u/scorcherkennedy:

basically singlehandedly lifts the Palau endgame from "very fascinating and exciting" to "a true work of art." It's devastating and unsparing and [chef kissing fingers]

/u/JM1295:

Yeah I think I've been clear on this. Great character and he isn't far out of my endgame and I agree with almost all of the praises for him as a character. I just have stronger gripes with his little flaws, like the unevenly told story and really not revving up until the endgame of Palau. Kind of bummed he ended up being idoled and made 5/5 endgames now, but he's more than his strong merits for being here.

/u/GwenHarper:

Ian! Man oh man am I glad that this lovable dingus made it to endgame. We have a fuck ton of Palau up in here but Ian clearly deserves it. Hands down the most tragic character in survivor history and one of its most beloved.

/u/qngff:

Personal Endgame Ranking: 3

Personal Overall Ranking: 5

Ian is bar none one of the show’s all-time greats. He manages to stand out so well on a fantastic season like Palau and his arc is just indescribable. The epic battle against Tom in the finale is thrilling to watch and the end is so heartbreaking. I love Ian so much as a character and I’m glad he’s made his 5th appearance here.

/u/xerop681:

Ian Rosenberger (3rd place, Palau)

Throughout five rankdowns, 72 endgamers, and a shit ton of different rankers with different opinions, only one person has actually made endgame every time - and from the topic of this writeup, you can probably correctly guess that person as Ian!

Ian making endgame 5 times isn’t some fluke - I think in pretty much every rankdown there’s been at least one person who wants to see Ian not make the endgame, you had people like Dumpster_Baby in the first rankdown who I heard really hated him?? All the way from people like JM in this rankdown who wanted to see him fall just short - but Ian prevails, mainly because for every head hunter looking to dethrone him before endgame, there’s one person who LOVES him enough to make sure that premature cut doesn’t happen - count me as that person in this rankdown, I guess.

I approach Ian with the same logic I approach Russell Swan - lots of people will dock points off him because the real “meat” of his story is only done over the last 4 episodes - and only really turns into this “amazing best story ever!” kind of thing during the last 3 - however, what I will also say is hardly any Survivor characters hit peaks in their last 3 episodes like Ian does in his. Hell, I want to say none hit peaks like Ian does in his last 3, but I won’t because I may be forgetting some people! What’s my point?? Er, Ian deserves Endgame for having some amazing final episodes.

Of course, Ian’s story wouldn’t be nearly as impactful without the buildup. I believe that the editors of Palau needed to accomplish four things before Ian’s story to make him work… set up his brother/father-son hybrid relationship with Tom, his friendship with Kate, his position as a “middle man” on Koror, and, possibly more importantly, to make us like him.

So, naturally you can guess what part 1 about this writeup will be about - the buildup. The show does a really good of building up Ian’s story but still keeping him as a background character: so people watching for the first time would think that he is just a mere sidekick, and people watching spoiled on Ian being a great character are forced to be attentive and look for the little details.

Ian definitely has an interesting dynamic early on as being a “second-in-command” to Tom. Basically every time Tom’s out hunting for snakes, engaging in a legendary battle with a shark, or even doing harder stuff like delegating work and giving orders, Ian is standing by his side and giving his support. In that way they definitely have a father-son relationship: Tom is usually the one taking the lead, but Ian is just happy to be with him and helping out, much like Tom is a father fixing his car and Ian’s just there holding the flashlight and handing him the tools. It also does feel like there’s some sort of rivalry between the two, though - almost like you can tell Ian wants to be better than Tom - I mean, he’s clearly a physically dominant player, probably would’ve beasted a lot of the challenges post-merge if not for Tom - but he gets completely overshadowed by how strong and larger than life Tom is. So it does feel like they have a sort of competitive rivalry, nothing serious, more playful than anything, but it’s there… of course this slight bit of competition and their friendship would come to hurt Ian a lot later.

Naturally, being super close with Tom, Ian is second in command on Koror… and i’ll just say that for now.

Another significant relationship Ian has early on is with Katie. Now, it’s important to understand that early on, Koror was basically a summer camp: they had these daily survivor activities they’d do, they’d play a game against the members of Ulong every once and awhile, win every time… so really nothing was happening, well I mean obviously there was a bunch of background scheming and fights, but there was also a lot of relationships and friendships that developed as a result of not going to tribal council. Katie and Ian are like the PERFECT example of this - definitely one of my favorite survivor relationships ever. They just have such a great friendship early on, like it almost feels like your classic summer camp romance/boy-girl flirtmance. They don’t really have a bunch of dedicated scenes on OG Koror, just little snippets of their relationship here and there: for example, Katie putting a sock puppet show on for the tribe while Ian watches. Idk just a really quick but sweet scene, which is basically Ian and Katie’s relationship before final 7; a jumble of sweet, cute scenes.

Of course, above (and more importantly) than anything else, Ian was likable early on. He doesn’t have like, amazing personal content about his life or anything, but you can just tell that this young, really tall, dolphin trainer is just a bundle of joy with a heart of gold, always serving a smile and in a good mood… like i’d argue that Ian is such a naturally likable character that even if he remained a background character throughout all of Palau i’d have him pretty high, obviously nowhere near endgame but definitely like top half just based on likability alone.

Of course, Ian’s relationship with Tom, his friendship with Katie, his place on the hierarchy of Koror, and his likability all mixed together; the perfect storm, making one of the best tragic characters ever…

The final 7 of the Palau is, really, the first hint of “game” Ian has in his survivor journey - up until then it’s been dodging tribal council on Koror, and two fairly easy boot rounds with Coby/Janu. We see hints of his relationship with Tom and Katie changing; it is very much like the fun, innocent summer camp days are over, and Ian is about to engage in the real “game”. His relationship with Tom is being tested because for the first time all post-merge, Tom is not immune and people are playing around with the idea of voting him out - Ian is sort of up in the middle now, being tempted by people like Katie to take Tom out - that’s part of his position as “second in command” on Koror coming in play, now people are coming to him to talk about taking out the top guy. Also, speaking about Katie, Ian’s relationship with her is beginning to change too: they’re going from “fun, innocent, friends” on Koror to strategic manipulators together - or at least, it seems like Katie wants that from Ian. All throughout you can sort of see a slow divide being built between Ian’s two major relationships: People (including Katie) want to take Tom out for being a threat, but Ian is friends with Tom and obviously Tom is preaching loyalty to him. But even though Ian’s game is being tested and you can see the seeds for everything tumbling down, in the end it ends up being an easy 6-1 vote for Stephenie, and he gets what he wants… still, you can tell times are changing.

Final 6 is where the dynamics really start to shift. It all starts when the dark horse, Gregg, emerges from the spotlight as a threat when he takes Katie and Jenn on a reward with him - Ian and Tom naturally assume that he is putting forward some kind of plot to take him out - so they strike back by making a plot to take Gregg out. I already talked about it in my Tom writeup a bit, which I'm assuming is coming out before this - there’s this really awesome scene where Tom, Ian, and Caryn are all talking on the beach and kind of putting the pieces together for what’s going to happen and how they can strike back, it sort of feels like the epic scene you get before the final battle in a movie (Even though of course this isn’t the final battle).

Before doing anything, Tom/Ian have to win immunity - success!

Post challenge sequence is really the first instance we see of “Ian fucks things up through small, simple mistakes”. There’s one scene where Gregg, Ian, and Tom are talking about the vote and Ian slips up by saying, “the vote will be interesting”... kind of adds an awkward tone to the conversation because Gregg thinks that the vote will be 5-1 Caryn. Luckily Tom fixes Ian’s slip-up by saying, “it’s always interesting!” which is a response Gregg seems to be at peace with.

Ian is being torn apart between his relationship with Katie and his relationship with Tom. Last round it seemed like he was more so leaning into his “schemers” relationship with Katie, against Tom - however now it seems like since he was under the threat of going home, he’s leaning into his bond with Tom to stay safe - although let it be known that he is TORN, and wants to keep both these relationships alive as long as possible. But for now, he’s leaning in to his relationship with Tom, and flips Katie last minute to make the vote 4-2 for Gregg instead of a 3-3 tie.

He also delivers one of the best voting confessionals in the process: “Gregg, you’re the dark horse. It’s time for the dark horse to ride out into the sunset.”

Alright, so you know how I briefly mentioned that Ian made a small, stupid mistake by almost hinting Gregg off to his blindside? Well, yeah, it doesn’t end there, and it only gets worse at the final 5. Ian wins the car award challenge and decides to take… Tom - probably due to the adrenaline of taking his side last vote and winning, which would be a perfectly valid decision… if he hadn’t already promised Katie that he’d take her on a reward at the final 5. Even Tom kind of gives a, “Ian, you dumbass” reaction… but sadly Ian just really sucks at these moment-moment strategic decisions, and they end up hurting him in the long run.

Katie and Ian get into this really real and emotional fight, it’s sad. You can tell that at this point, the weight of Ian’s decisions are starting to take a real toll on him - he had to choose between Tom and Katie and ended up upsetting Katie, while not even getting the approval of his buddy, Tom. There’s also the element of Caryn running around trying to make some sort of move happening, she starts yelling at Tom and Ian as soon as they get back from reward…

Luckily Ian is able to dodge punishment for the mistakes he made the round, and Caryn goes home 4-1… another really good voting confessional here, “Best part of my day. Can not wait for you to go home.”

Ian’s game is pretty damn destroyed by the finale of Palau - he’s entirely lost the whole “nice guy” reputation I mentioned earlier, mainly due to pulling a purely strategic blindside at the final 6, and by being a mess at the final 5. He’s also permanently damaged his relationships with both Katie and Tom, even if there’s still some love there.

Needless to say, it’s about to get much worse for Ian. Ian finds himself plotting to take out Tom with Jenn and Katie, mainly under the basis that he can’t beat him, and as much as he values friendship right now being able to beat Tom seems more important to him? I think this part of the game is a huge question mark for him, like even he isn’t sure about what he needs to do to redeem himself in the eyes of everyone else, so at this point he just thinks the best thing he can do to fix his broken relationships is to win, that’ll justify his actions.

But then Tom wins immunity, and it’s about to get really rough for Ian. Tom finds out that Ian was planning to take him out and, gasp is mad! Who would’ve thought? Just like the Katie-Ian fight in the final 5 episode, this is definitely one of the most emotional, real, and intense fights we’ve ever seen on survivor. There’s like a raw aggression to the way Tom yells at Ian that… it’s almost scary, it doesn’t help that Tom is naturally super intimidating. You can tell that Tom is very angry over the fact that Ian, his bro, someone he shared a great friendship with, would end up betraying him… and Ian just takes it all, like there’s a part of it that feels like he wants to defend himself, but another part where you can tell he’s also just hurt that he’s damaged another one of his close friendships in Tom.

Katie saves him from getting the boot and Jenn goes home, but does it really matter? Ian’s in the final 3 with the two people he’s closest to - Katie and Tom - but he isn’t really close to them anymore: he’s made mistakes entirely of his own accord and poor decision making that has caused them to think he doesn’t value their friendship, and it’s kind of broken him?? It seems like he doesn’t care about winning anymore, instead he wants to be able to make up with his friends.

Needless to say, Ian’s story doesn’t end with him having to choose between his friendship with Katie or Tom - instead he has to fall on his sword. In arguably the greatest final immunity challenge of all time, Tom and Ian face off for nearly 12 hours to win… until Ian finally poses his solution. I like to think due to the nature of the challenge - literally just standing on a buoy - Ian spent most of the 12 hours trying to think of a way out of his situation, trying to think of some way to make things right… until he finally blurts out the words, “okay, I have a solution”... cue tragedy.

Ian decides that in order to salvage his relationship with Katie and Tom, he is going to drop out of the challenge and ask for Tom to vote him out - something that he in no way had to do, as Tom had been talking him up about how he’d vote out Katie for hours - but in his mind, this is him “making things right”. The whole scene is just really beautiful, amazing, etc., one of my favorites ever - the music is perfect and absolutely nails the whole bittersweet feeling of “NOOOOO IAN ;(“ while also being like, “YAY Ian is making up with his friends!” and the final shot of Ian just sort of looking off to the sky while Katie/Tom both leave is amazing - you can really tell that Ian is still debating if he made the right choice.

Simply an all time great tragic story - it’s heartbreaking to watch it unfold mainly because Ian is such a lovable kid, but also beautifully told in a way where I think it can hit a key with a lot of people. Obviously nobody can 100% relate to Ian’s journey as a whole, but the idea of making a bunch of minor fuck ups that spiral out of control, while also getting too invested in friendships? That shit hits close to home - and obviously some of the best tragic stories are the ones that you can relate to the most.

Hope you enjoyed the writeup! Tried my best to do Ian justice - although it is quite the intimidating story and I got a bit burned out at the end.

6/14

vulture_couture: 4

CSteino: 6

scorcherkennedy: 2

xerop681: 6

JM1295: 10

GwenHarper: 5

qngff: 3

Average Placement: 5.142857143

#5: Cirie Fields 1.0

/u/vulture_couture:

Out of all the growth arcs we've had on Survivor, Panama Cirie's feels executed the cleanest. Cirie quickly goes from the couch potato who was afraid of leaves to one of the best players in Survivor to never win. Her story slowly shifts from being unable to be physically outside and do things without panicking to being the queen of the Casayas, the motherly figure and the only same man on that tribe all at once, the mastermind one of the most legendary moves on Survivor and the very definition of a R.obbed G.oddess.

I may not emotionally connect to Panama Cirie's story as strongly as some others but she is without a doubt one of the all-time greatest characters on Survivor and a deserved near-fixture for the endgame. It is rare to see someone like Cirie get the amount of reverence she gets in Survivor lore. I would honestly be at peace if they rigged an entire season for Cirie to come back and finally take the crown that's hers because she deserves it and at this point she's such a symbol of hope for the Survivor castaways who have to check the "Other" box in the entry form.

/u/CSteino:

Arguably the best growth arc ever, Cirie is someone who you just adore from minute 1 and then love her all the way until her tragic firemaking loss. She works brilliantly on Panama, especially on Casaya, which only gives her more points, and her arc is one of the best the show has made.

/u/scorcherkennedy:

One of Survivor's most timeless and classic stories. The show has tried countless times since to recreate this arc but has never matched it cause it's not all about the story - it's about the person inside the story. Cirie's wonderful personality and sense of humor are what makes the character one of Survivor's best.

/u/xerop681:

ROBBED.

Lots of Survivor’s most “famous” robbed goddess arguably have that status only make their character better - for example characters like Cydney in S32, Keith in S29, Malcolm in S25, and Holly in S21 are all bettered by their status as r.obbed goddess’ (Even if it would have been great to see some of them win). With Cirie, while there’s definitely an element of tragedy with her never being able to win, there’s also the side of it that makes me want to cry. Like WHY. Why can’t this woman who is like the literal embodiment of joy, love, happiness, all that jazz in a person NOT win Survivor?? It feels like a big “fuck you” from the universe, if you ask me.

Cirie 1.0 is, obviously, fantastic. There have been other solid versions of Cirie, particularly 2.0 who I would also have top 50, but in the end, none of them hold a candle to the first in terms of being iconic. Her growth is amazing, inspiring, transcendent, all that cheesy stuff people say about growth, it’s here and I love it. Simply one of the most lovable and enjoyable personalities ever in Panama: the scene where Cirie absolutely fails at catching a fish but remains laughing and smiling throughout the whole thing works as a perfect way to show just what a positive and lovely person she is. She also ain’t got bad strategic bones - surviving a bad swap, pulling out a 3-2-1? Good siht. Even though I love Aras as a winner, I really really wish Cirie won Panama, but hey maybe she’ll win the rankdown?

/u/JM1295:

Cirie has a very standard growth arc, but adds such a great spin to it. That, of course being her unique circumstances being on Casaya and being the most likable contestant the show has ever seen. Her laugh is so infectious, her snide commentary on Casaya being Casaya is wonderful, and her going from having a hilarious fear of leaves to pulling off the 3-2-1 vote is amazing. I struggle to think of a more feel good character than Cirie and one that has such an extreme turnaround from day 1. Definitely has the best growth arc the show has ever seen.

/u/GwenHarper:

How can you not love Cirie? Most people attribute the growth arc to Kathy, but Cirie’s is so much better. Her humble beginnings, warmth, humor, and “gangster with a smile” persona at this point are entirely infused with the Golden Age of Survivor’s brand. Unlike other franchise mascots like Boston Rob, Cochran, and Parvati, Cirie is universally beloved. Nobody doesn’t like Cirie. For me though, I have always felt like she is at her best when you look at her duology from Panama to Micronesia, and even further through HvV and Game Changers. More than any other character, she is at her best when looked at as a complete package or a humble bundle. I question whether her first appearance by itself is the only Cirie worth endgame when her Micronesia appearance is like a 9/10 on its own. Regardless, Cirie rules and I’m so glad she’s here.

/u/qngff:

Cirie Fields 1.0

How does one even begin to discuss the single greatest character of all-time. Taking on this task is certainly a daunting one. Unlike Tina, I hadn’t ever planned on doing the Cirie writeup until right when we were deciding who does what writeup. Out of my four personal endgamers that made it in, I was already doing Tina, and Gwen had been the main champion of Natalie. That left Ian and Cirie. Honestly, I feel like I’d do a better job with this writeup than with Ian and also that Xerop would do a better Ian writeup than I ever could.

Still, I wasn’t thinking I’d be doing Cirie’s writeup. I thought she was a lock and enough people liked her that she could get in easily and someone would take her while I took one of the less common endgamers that I had. Maybe the Aubry writeup or Sugar. Or maybe one of the more iconic characters I love like Rupert or Kathy. Or maybe I could get the chance to explain why Sandra 1.0 is my preferred of the two and why I consider her the all time second greatest character. Well, as it turned out, none of them made it. And here I am. I don’t consider myself stuck with the Cirie writeup. No, I love this opportunity. But it’s just hitting me now how daunting of a task this is and how important this writeup is. Like I said, Cirie is my all-time favorite character. Trying to put into words how fantastic, amazing, and transcendental of a character she is is an incredibly difficult task. But I’m going to try my gosh-darn best.

Before I get into Cirie 1.0, let’s talk about her three subsequent appearances. Because the Cirie of Game Changers is a much different woman than the Cirie of Panama. Her years-long journey as a human being is really incredible and each season just adds to her amazing legacy.

Let’s go in reverse chronological order, so we begin our journey with Game Changers. Here, we get a Cirie overflowing with wisdom and life experience. Her everpresent smile still there on her face and her signature giggle making multiple appearances. This Cirie is determined to win. She easily defends her legacy as one of the greatest strategic badasses of all time, and she was extremely close to actually pulling it off. Sadly, Advantagegeddon was her downfall, as she was the only one left at that Final 6 tribal without immunity in some form. Cirie 4.0 gives us a season-long reminder of why she’s so beloved and amazing. And not just in strategy too. She’s a master of the confessionals, and the way she forms true, genuine bonds with people is amazing. I always like to point to her mentor role to Michaela. Their conversation about what it’s like to be a black woman in the United States is a powerful scene. Game Changers Cirie provides a nice cap to her multi-season arc after a tragically short run through Heroes vs Villains.

And speaking of HvV, Cirie’s third showing was a short, but great one. She was an early strategic powerhouse on the Heroes tribe, and was one of the biggest Heroes out there. Her personality was as infectious as ever. The way she speaks combined with her body language and mannerisms just draw you in to listen to her. She was 100% the most dominant force on the tribe, and knew it. She flaunted it. Never in a way that was meant to boast or put others down. But in a way that let you know exactly who was in charge and that control was deserved. She gave one early confessional that I think describes her strategic chops near perfectly. Cirie is a gangster, she’ll cut you, but she’s a nice gangster. One who smiles and is your friend. Then stabs you in the front in cold blood. The duality of being such a cutthroat strategist who’ll do anything to succeed and the sweetest woman you’ll ever meet is a really unique one. Others who try to replicate Cirie’s strategist/friend combo will mostly either lean to one side heavily or have trouble being fully committed to both roles. Cirie makes it flow so easily and naturally, and I love that about her.

Micronesia is where Cirie locks down her legacy as one of the all-time greatest players of the game. Micronesia is also where she proves that the persona we got in Panama was genuine. She’s here, has experience, and is excited to play alongside the greats and to take out the newbies. And complete with her infectious personality is her establishment as one of the greatest strategists and players the game has ever seen, and I’d dare to say that her Micronesia showing was the best strategic gameplay by a non-winner ever. Couples alliance who? Vanuatu+Penner+Yau alliance who? Cirie becomes a master of identifying a threat and taking it out with style. She got what she wanted as the powerhouse, not the decider from a middle position. She solidified her Final 3 on Day 7. On pure charm she could convince people to go against their best interests to serve her own. She ran the entire game the whole way and managed to convince people to take her to the F3 despite how enormous of a threat she was. And she only lost because the cast was not expecting to be facing a Final 2. Her engaging narration was on full display, with any remaining shortcomings patched up and perfected. Back Across The Ocean is one of my favorite scenes in all of Survivor and Cirie carries it perfectly.

I could go on for hours about Micro Cirie, whom I also have in my personal endgame, but this writeup is about her Panama showing. The best of her four showings and my favorite character of all time.

Taking a look at the woman Cirie became, it seems shocking to say that we almost never got this. Cirie was almost voted out on Day 3. Back then, she wasn’t the confident, experienced strategist. She wasn’t the legend we know her as today. She was nowhere near the Survivor Mount Rushmore. She was just a nurse from Walterboro, South Carolina who got up off the couch to play Survivor herself.

Let’s start from the beginning. Right off the bat, Cirie is miffed by being placed on a tribe of so-called “older women” especially when she was 35. She gets the first question about division on the mats where she points out older vs younger. Jeff confirms the age and gender divide, and she immediately reacts with “uhhh I thought I was young!” Then we get the first confessional of the season, also given by Cirie.

Woahwoahwoahwoahwoah. I’m on what team??? starts giggling Why do they think I’m older do I look older?

And cut back to the mats with Cirie flashing her signature smile. We go on with the adventure, but the opening confessional went to Cirie. Getting the opening confessional usually signifies one of two things, either this will be a hugely important season-long character or this will be someone with a swift exit, but a big part of the early game. And through the premiere, Cirie seemed like she’d be the former, especially after Casaya lost the first immunity challenge.

As Casaya arrived to their beach, Cirie gets the first observation as well. She talks about how barren the camp is and her fear of all the “things” in the jungle that might come out when they clear the leaves. She is quickly frightened by leaves. Tina comments on her lack of outdoor experience which becomes a recurring theme in the first half of Cirie’s story. Her inexperience and fears and trepidations are fully highlighted and showcased and it makes her post-merge transformation into the badass we know her as that much more amazing.

So her importance is established again with the opening beach landing confessional and primary focus. Compare this to the other tribes main characters and first confessionalists on the other tribes: Aras, Courtney, and Terry.

Post-challenge, Cirie gets to speak first once again. She worries about leaving, but still keeps up the positivity with her ever-present giggle. After a quick check-up on Tina, Cirie takes her first strategic step. Unsure of herself, but not wanting to go first, she starts talking to Melinda and Ruth-Marie pointing out how Tina’s personality could be a bit grating and how she’d be a long-term threat to them in challenges. But it seemed like the pair was set on Cirie. She scaled the fish, and took specific steps to prove her worth to them and how they could succeed even without Tina.

At tribal council, she branded herself as the woman who got off the couch to play and wants something more now! She also appeals that she and the other two are just as capable as Timber Tina. And Tina makes comments about the lesser work ethic of the other women. Falling in line with the more abrasive personality Cirie brought up earlier, Cirie remains on the island.

I highlight the premiere episode so significantly because the establishment of Cirie Fields is so important not just to her overall story arc in Panama, but to Survivor as a whole. I’ll say it again how strange it is to think about how different Survivor would be if Cirie was voted out first. She’s on the Survivor Mount Rushmore by so many metrics, and thinking what if? It’s odd.

With surviving the first vote, Cirie gains more confidence in herself and her abilities. Episode 2 is when we get to see her flesh out further in personality, from her drive and determination, to her sweetness and snark. When Shane contemplates quitting due to nicotine withdrawal, she remarks that if he wants to quit let him! It lets her get farther!

Cirie also has the good fortune of being on Casaya, the more dominant tribe. The main alliance decided to pick off Melinda instead of Cirie and then La Mina went on a losing streak. Once it was Casaya’s turn at tribal once again, Cirie had gotten tight with the girls. The vote was messy, but Cirie weaponized it to her advantage. She had gained a lot more strategic confidence at this point, and utilized the chaos of the situation as well as the general distaste for Bobby after the Bathroom Incident. She ushered him out the door.

Then, MERGE!!!!!

Cirie has finally established herself not just as a legendary character, but a legendary player as well. And an unexpected one at that. This is the woman who was afraid of leaves on Day One. But her infectious personality and strong grip of the social game got her this far. And her alliances built are taking her farther.

Cirie, you could argue, has a growth arc. But it never feels like one. She’s not treated like a Kathy by the edit. She’s just Cirie. The woman who got up off the couch to play Survivor for herself. The woman who proved to everyone how much of a badass she is while still being the sweetest person alive. Not many people can simultaneously wield the powers of overflowing charm and cutthroat strategy, but she does it masterfully.

And of course, her abundance of character moments.

One of my favorite episodes in ALL of Survivor is Medical Emergency. Yes, the Bruce medevac. It’s a pure character episode and it does everything right. Shane gets a rash on his crotch. And since Cirie is a nurse, Shane asks her to take a look. Instead of, you know, asking medical. She hesitantly agrees, and he just drops his pants and starts talking about his dick. Cirie, always one to find the humor in a situation, just cannot stop giggling. She diagnoses it as chafing and recommends he not wear soaked boxers. Being a nurse, this is especially funny for the audience since she’s having such a hard time maintaining the professionalism she usually would. But Shane basically just waltzed up to her and asked her to examine his crotch. Out of absolutely nowhere. It’s hilarious. Of course, this leads to Shane carrying Bruce away while naked and Courtney’s LUV in the rock garden. All around fantastic episode. Cirie was the shining star as always.

Running up to the end, she shows her strategic power once again at the Courtney blindside. She proves her character worth at the loved one’s visit with H.B. (who by the way is a Top 5 Loved One), and finally leads to her tragic elimination at Firemaking against Danielle.

Cirie is a woman who in four tries at the game has never had a standard vote-out. Advantagegeddon in Game Changers. Idoled Out in Heroes vs Villains. Lost FIC in a surprise F3 in Micronesia, and lost Firemaking in Panama. A heartbreaking end to the journey of our hero. And the fact that firemaking was at the start of the finale episode just made it that much more sad. There was still hope. We had no time to go through the five stages of grief at the loss of our beloved Cirie Fields. It made it cut that much deeper. And thus was the end of the journey of the greatest character of all time.

So what can we take away from the journey of Cirie Fields? Anyone is capable. It doesn’t matter what you look like, who you are, where you came from, or how comfy your couch is. We learn that a smile and a kind heart go a long way. We learn that badasses come in all sorts of personalities. They don’t have to be the standard macho-tough guys. They can be a mid-30s nurse and mom. Cirie is a wonderful part of Survivor history. She is so important to the show as a whole. I don’t want to know what the show would be like if she was voted out on Day 3. Because it would be nowhere near as magnificent.

vulture_couture: 6

CSteino: 7

scorcherkennedy: 6

xerop681: 5

JM1295: 4

GwenHarper: 8

qngff: 1

Average Placement: 5.285714286

#6: Sue Hawk 1.0

/u/CSteino:

I could probably cite Rats and Snakes alone and be done justifying why Sue is an endgamer. Easily the most iconic and important moment in the history of the show, as well as being one of the most complex to boot. Fantastic relationships with nearly everyone, phenomenal content of her own, and one of the most unique to ever play. Very, very glad she’s made it back into endgame.

/u/scorcherkennedy:

iconic doesn't even begin describe her. Sue is responsible for Survivor's most iconic moment, a moment that's on the shortlist of most memorable tv moments of the 21st century. Excellent story, unique camera presence, completely real, unvarnished, unafraid to speak her mind. We need more Sue's on Survivor.

/u/xerop681:

Sue Hawk is like, well, quinnessential great survivor character. The Citizen Kane of survivor characters, if you will. Basically everyone can look at Sue and say, yeah, she’s great - and otherwise they’ll be some snobby attention seeker in the top of the comments saying “I watched Borneo and actually DIDN’T CARE for Sue”... basically the whole argument on Citizen Kane.

But yeah like Sue is great. There’s something weird… I don’t even want to say “missing” from her character that makes me not appreciate her as much (I still have her like top 30 though), more so something missing from me that makes me rank her lower??? Whatever, i’ll probably move her up if I ever watch Borneo again and pay better attention: she has this absolutely amazing tragic story and backstory that plays perfectly into her storyline in Borneo, the relationship with Kelly is obviously top tier and one of the best we’ve seen in Survivor history, topped off with Snakes and Rats which is just… perfect, duh.

/u/JM1295:

Pretty much gonna echo what I said in my idol post for her. An absolute icon for Survivor in every way imaginable and there's so many great elements to Sue and her story, even without taking "Snakes and Rats" into account. Unlike a Rudy, I'd say Sue has aged quite well all these years later and holds up very well. It's a goddamn travesty she has only made 3/5 endgames, but lets hope SR3 and 4 were just outliers moving forward. It feels almost too daunting to tackle a Sue writeup, but I look forward to seeing what Gwen vulture comes up with!

/u/GwenHarper:

Wow, there are so many powerful women in this endgame and I am so here for it. Sue is Sue. She is unapologetically Sue, and that is enough to get into endgame.

/u/qngff:

Personal Endgame Ranking: 10

Personal Overall Ranking: 76

The tapioca queen just doesn’t hit all the right notes for me like she does for others. I wrote about her already, and she’s really good. I just don’t see her as endgame.

/u/vulture_couture:

SUE HAWK 1.0

There’s a certain fascination this fandom and our culture as a whole has with Tragic Women. It’s not a good story until you can see her heart break on screen. A woman doing well and/or leaving with her head held high is boring and doesn’t deserve our attention - a woman who is completely shattered, has her dreams turn to dust in her hands and has everything she loves ripped away from her, however? That’s the shit. That’s the Good Storytelling right there.

And I’m as guilty of that as anybody. I eat that good Tragic Storyline up every single time. I see the pride destroyed and the wounded animal lashing out to get that last possible shred of solace from the misery and I’m as moved as you possibly can be watching a reality tv show about voting each other out for money.

When it comes to Sue, I don’t even really think we need to establish why she’s a deserving endgame character always. Loathe as I am to say it given that Lord knows he doesn’t need his ego fed further, SURM’s endgame writeup for Sue from way back in the first rankdown is still one of the best things anybody has written about Survivor ever and I can’t possibly hope to match it here. That said there’s always a lot to discuss when it comes to Sue and I don’t think you can effectively shove her into a single box only which is what makes her such a persistently inspiring character even all these years later.

”There's nothing wrong with a rat. All a rat is, is a squirrel without a fuzzy tail.”

Survivor is a show that often works in stereotypes. The nature of reality television and the need to convey simplistic narratives out of real life stories puts people into clear-cut boxes they have a hard time breaking out of. And Sue is someone who would have been really easy to put into that box: She’s a loud redneck truck driver who doesn’t give a fuck about offending other people and who’s brash and abrasive to the point of alienating the rest of her cast very often. And yet Borneo avoids doing this at every step and paints the picture of a really complex woman. The way Sue is portrayed goes beyond the surface level and stays far away from caricaturing her the way a lesser season would. She is a redneck who doesn’t have much patience for city folk and their ways and can come off a little simple to an outside observer but she’s also really smart and driven and way more observant than she gets credit for.

The early episodes paint a strong division between Sue and Hatch. Hatch is the city slicker, the arrogant corporate guy with his way of doing things that go entirely against Sue’s rough-and-tough no nonsense approach. And yet they are much more similar when it comes to their approach to Survivor than any other two people in the cast. They both see that this is a game and when it comes to honor and ethics, those are just external trappings masking the dog-eat-dog world this truly is under the surface. Sue might dish out the rat and snake talk to other people but when it comes down to it, Sue has no qualms being either a rat or a snake. There’s nothing wrong with a rat, after all. It’s perfectly edible and if you stick a fuzzy tail on it it can be cute, even.

”Well, anybody's too barking and too bossy to Stacey because she doesn't move her ass. The chicks think I'm voting for one person, and I'm not.

And so the dumb redneck becomes the first person to bite the perennial apple on Survivor. Note that during this first vote, Hatch is completely out of it and pretty much just votes based on a gut feeling. Sue is the first one to actively make a sneaky, covert decision to steer the game in a direction that would be more beneficial to her. She takes in the girls’ annoyance with Rudy and his bossy ways and relative uselessnes. She takes in the fact that Sonja is literally God’s angel on Earth and one of the sweetest and most likeable human beings to ever walk this good planet. And she still votes Sonja out because there’s no room for liabilities in Sue’s world and Sonja’s was the most obvious weakness on the tribe. Individual annoyances don’t matter much: what’s important is making decisions in a strategic manner moving forward to give yourself a chance to actually change your life.

This is really the part where Sue and Hatch are one and the same in Borneo. What eventually separates them is less a philosophical difference and more the fact that Sue buckled up and gave in to the island where Richard never did and decided to show her soft side and put all her trust in a person where Hatch was always better at separating himself from the island emotions. He may have loved Rudy out on the island but when it comes to the bottom line, Hatch was never going to jeopardize his success for no goddamn Rudy. Sue showed weakness where Hatch never did and paid the price for it.

I do want to make an aside here and say that an important aspect of what makes Sue great is Sue is fucking funny and has a ton of fun out there on the island. For as much as her story ends in tragedy and the battle between her head and her heart will always get highlighted, Sue also just seems really happy to be there a lot of the time even if the perception of her was that she was always sour and unhappy.

One of my favorite Sue moments is during a premerge reward challenge:

” I'm thinking the other team's going to have a guy throwing the spear. So if there is, there's a good chance that I can dog some guy on national TV. Even if we lost and I at least dogged the guy in the spear throwing, I’d be happy.”

Sue doesn’t end up winning this challenge, but her joy at the mere idea of beating a man at spear-throwing is palpable. Sue couldn’t give less of a fuck about traditional gender roles and in that moment she just wants to prove herself and tell the word she can be stronger than any man and honestly if anyone can dislike Sue in that moment I don’t even know what to tell them. You can tell that Sue is just a super-individualistic person by pretty much everything about her life and the island gives her an opportunity to prove herself outside the general trappings of the outside world and she gets so much joy from it on the regular. If there was any justice in the world, Sue would have won this challenge. But yet, all the douchebag penalty points for Joel didn’t end up counting and Sue lost out on the victory there.

”I’m not an openly nice person.”

Sue prides herself on being a tough woman who’s hard to shake. And the irony of that is that of all the Survivor characters we’ve had she’s one of the ones who’s the most of a bleeding open wound on a consistent basis. Despite Sue being somewhat closed off emotionally, when she does open up it’s really striking and her vulnerability defines her as much as her strong exterior. From day one, Sue is one of the people that’s the most open about playing the game for herself and shooting for the money. And yet her friendship with Kelly and the fallout of such is one of the most strikingly resonant personal relationships the show has ever seen. And it’s all because Sue’s toughness gives her moments of vulnerability such weight: When Sue makes a friend, it’s not like anyone else making a friend because you know there’s years of emotional baggage behind her decision to open up to this specific person and the following rejection hurts that much more.

To the surprise of many, Sue really does open up to Kelly and sees a genuine friend in her. The true tragedy of Sue and Kelly in Borneo is that whenever Sue thinks that they see eye to eye on something... they never really do. Kelly will be nice to Sue, sure! But Kelly also doesn’t seem to think Sue is a particularly enticing companion and once she meets the Pagong ladies who she vibes with much better, she starts to see Sue in an entirely different way. To her, the manipulative Tagis suddenly become this horrible group of people she doesn’t even particularly like that she’s stuck with for convenience and material gain. She sees Sue as a manipulative garbage person who’s only ever after money and that tracks with what Sue would tell you about herself on most days. And yet the image Sue projects completely crumbles when it comes to Kelly. Sue might be like that to everyone else but when it comes to Kelly, the money concerns fall to the wayside. At some points, Sue even says that she would have been willing to lose to Kelly at the end and at the end of the day, I don’t think she’s lying here. But why should Kelly believe her that when all she sees of Sue when it comes to other people is this cold, pragmatic exterior? The tragedy of their fallout is that neither has the correct perception of the other person and the differences between them magnify each other based on incorrect assumptions each have against the other.

And while Kelly is judging Sue and the Tagi alliance for their pragmatic approach to the game, one she earlier cosigned and was fully onboard with, ultimately Kelly’s rejection of Sue is way harsher than anything Sue ever did in the actual game. She takes Sue’s trust, the trust of a person that believed in her as her only friend, who saw her as a path to healing and eventually discarding her hardened shell and opening up to the world again, and she throws it to the trash because she just can’t believe it was even real. She might not even care if it was: After all, Kelly only ever seems to seek approval of others and to be seen as a good guy in the eyes of the universe and at some point Sue stops being a person to her and starts being an obstacle to the positive self-image Kelly so desperately seeks out on the island.

”If I were to ever pass you along in life again and you were laying there dying of thirst, I would not give you a drink of water. I would let the vultures take you and do whatever they want with you, with no ill regrets.”

Sue’s Snakes and Rats speech is easily one of the all-time most compelling reality television moments and of course I can’t do a Sue writeup without ending on the thing Sue is most famous for. The end result of the fallout of the relationship between Sue and Kelly is a long speech where Sue makes every possible low blow she could think of, including calling Kelly a “rafting persona queen” which, to me, is the funniest string of words ever put together in the English language. You can see the palpable hurt in Sue as she unleashes all her vitriol onto the person who had her trust and decided to throw it in the garbage and then set the garbage can on fire and dance around the flames, all the while seemingly unaware of the impact of her actions. It’s a supremely bitter moment and a fitting conclusion to the sadder ends of the Borneo narrative and somehow it’s legacy kind of got muddied up into being a glorification of Hatch’s gameplay, ignoring the real, complex, emotional reason why Hatch got Sue’s vote and more importantly Kelly lost it.

Earlier in the season, Sue unleashes a different speech at a tribal council, comparing the situation they’re in on the island to corporate America and to how we’re all just chasing the bottom line at the end of the day. And I think that for the most part, Sue has always believed this out on the island, but Kelly was the one person who put doubts in her head about it. Sue would have been willing to throw out the bottom line for Kelly but Kelly didn’t even deign to give Sue the time of day once people she thought were cooler than her joined camp. And so, during Snakes and Rats, Sue returns to her original state of just completely rejecting human companionship and the possibility of anything more meaningful than self-interest and gives us a speech that’s an apotheosis of a world that’s made of predators and prey and where any other relationships are just a fancy dressing up of what the truth of the matter is. It’s a really ugly, raw moment and it leaves us with a character that arguably left the island worse off than they arrived to it and yet it’s about the only fitting conclusion Borneo could possibly have.

”"Why, I'm fire", he replied "And I love your solitude, I love your pride""

Sue’s story is not a non-stop dirge from start to end. We learn to know and love or hate Sue for who she is. And as closed off as she can seem in some aspects, she gives us more of who she is than almost any other character in Survivor history. We get to watch Sue in all her complexities: in her “tell you how it is” attitude, in her frankness and brashness that always borders on rude, in her naked want and ambition, in her struggles with self-image as we slowly learn that so many of Sue’s characteristics are just armor that hides the lonely, hurt person within, in her willingness to love and sacrifice herself for a person that ultimately doesn’t return the affection and in the absolute bleeding hurt of rejection that is her last stand. She’s as sympathetic as she is often offputting and hard to love and hypocritical but she is a complete person. We get to watch her burned and nasty and bitter but we also see the flames that got her to that point and it’s up to us to decide what to do with that story.

vulture_couture: 3

CSteino: 3

scorcherkennedy: 7

xerop681: 12

JM1295: 2

GwenHarper: 6

qngff: 10

Average Placement: 6.142857143

#7: Natalie Anderson

/u/vulture_couture:

Out of all the characters in this endgame, Natalie is I think the person who just has something for everyone. She's fun to watch from a gameplay perspective, she's got a wonderful story in avenging Nadiya and then Jeremy, she's a badass minority woman who doesn't take shit from people, she's funny as hell when she wants to be. Natalie is like the absolute ideal of what we can get from Modern Survivor when it's got a good day and doesn't just shit out "whichever stale male figure will succeed this time" repetitive narratives. I love her. It's hard to be a successful woman on Survivor and get near-universal respect from the fanbase but she somehow manages to do it and for that alone she has earned her spot here.

/u/CSteino:

Natalie’s revenge arc is absolutely amazing and helps make post-Jeremy SJDS such a fantastic stretch of episodes. She is the perfect winner for the season and watching her rise from the bottom to win is so satisfying. I wouldn’t have her endgame personally but I know why so many would and do.

/u/scorcherkennedy:

Natalie emerges out of the ashes of her ally's betrayal to orchestrate one of Survivor's greatest long cons. Memorable moves, flashy quotes and a panache for the dramatic. She has a case for Survivor's most entertaining winner although I do dock her points since the ally she avenges doesn't exactly garner sympathy from me and the story takes a while to get going.

/u/xerop681:

Now for someone who, in my opinion, should be essential in every conversation of “best winner ever” - whether it be about strategy or entertainment, doesn’t matter. Mainly because Natalie perfectly FUSES the line between the strategic game and her entertainment value, making for, in my opinion, what is probably the most entertaining game to watch in survivor history. Like just every move she makes is so entertaining and fun to watch unfold - her publicly calling out John Rocker to get him voted out is A+, it’s really amazing to watch her boot Alec over Keith and play it off so well, the slow build up to her betraying Jon/Jaclyn, her idoling out Baylor… ugh it’s just SOO GOOD and so entertaining the entire way through! Her slowly, but surely, avenging Jeremy post-merge is probably one of my all time favorite survivor storylines, literally the perfect storyline and not a moment is wasted. It’s just really interesting to watch her put the pieces together to form a winning game.

Doesn’t hurt that as far as personalities go, Natalie is also pretty damn amazing.

/u/JM1295:

Natalie has such a unique and distinct kind of journey on Survivor and has a great and fresh blend of complex strategy with this fantastic dynamic personality, along with a revenge arc. Yet even with all of that as major positives, she just never quite landed for me as an all time favorite. That's kind of splitting hairs at this point though.

/u/qngff:

Personal Endgame Ranking: 4

Personal Overall Ranking: 8

Iconic Queen of San Juan Del Sur. Natalie Anderson is a badass on so many levels. She’s sassy, she’s intelligent, she’s strong, she’s strategic, she’s a fantastic character. I loved her and Nadiya in their Amazing Race showings and they translated so well to Survivor. Her arc is one of the best in Modern Survivor, from her friendship with Jeremy to her takedown of John Rocker to her epic revenge tour, to her pulling out the win at the end and getting a de facto unanimous vote to take the crown, Natalie is all-around amazing.

/u/GwenHarper:

Natalie Anderson (SJDS, Winner)

I want to talk about failure. Its all I can think about lately. I am obsessed with leading this rich, full life and yet I feel stuck in this useless miasma. I spread myself so thin trying to do anything that instead of doing something, I do nothing. I freeze, my brain crossing wires and unable to accept that I am a person worth loving despite all the evidence to the contrary. How do you recover from that? When you fail, when you freeze, when you fuck up, entirely unable to do fucking anything: how do you pick yourself back up. That is the question I ask myself all the time. I’m not someone who quits easily, it isn’t in my nature to give up. I sit here, even now, writing this and barely coherent after one of the worst anxiety ridden days of my life, and I wonder. But then I think back to everything I’ve already overcome. It doesn’t make the present better, or easier. It just makes it possible.

For many of us, the lowest points in our lives will serve as inspiration for the highs and lows to come. Overcoming prior trauma does not make anyone’s current situation less valid. The fact that you can still be standing despite being in pain is very commendable. However, our stories may not be enough to get over that hump and begin to take forward steps again. That is partly why television and movies are so exciting and such a beloved part of society. Believing in ourselves might not be enough, especially if the hits just seem to keep on coming. While survivor does not have a responsibility to inspire others, it is obligated to tell a good and satisfying story. Even though the show is entering its mid-life crisis and changing up its vibe like a 40 year old man buys a toupe and a porsche/massive pickup truck to compensate for not being in charge of the world like he had once dreamed, its duty as a storytelling juggernaut is still present. One of the reasons that Survivor has been so successful and long lasting despite its… uh… recent format and style changes is that it finds a way to tell a diverse and wide ranging amount of stories. Hell, we have written about six hundred and fifty goddamn three of them over the past year and a half (yikes). Even better, writes the wannabe English major, is that these character arcs can be interpreted in multiple ways. So, since failure is on the brain, let’s take a look at the greatest character of all time.

Take a deep breath. Now, I normally would say to close your eyes but you cannot do that and still continue to read, so… uh, take another deep breath, I guess. Breathe in ...2...3...4 hold...2...3...4 out...2...3...4. Breathe like that until your mind is at ease. Do it until your mind is just a little bit calmer. Now, picture in your brain your best friend in the entire world. Think of their eyes, how they twinkle when they see you. Think of their smile, which grows wide when you tell a joke. Think of their voice, their hugs, and the hopes and dreams they have been courageous enough to share with you. They are your best friend, it feels like you have known them for your entire life. What if you have? What if they are family? And they know you better than anyone else on planet Earth. How do you deal with separation from the ones you love, especially if it is your best friend in the entire fucking galaxy? What if it is for the first time? Ever. This wonderful, loving and complex person who you have raced around the world with and know as well as you understand yourself is just... gone. That is the mindset Natalie Anderson was forced to play with after her twin sister was voted out first in Survivor: San Juan Del Sur.

This grand adventure that they had hoped for together was suddenly cut short on day three. From that moment onward, Natalie was faced with a dilemma: the greater her success, the longer it would take for the two of them to be reunited. Natalie’s survival pushed her deeper and deeper into the unknown. I can’t even begin to imagine what it must have been for her back then, not only lose her twin, but to be entirely alone for the first time in her life. That is a storyline entirely unique in survivor. No one else has that. It’s all Natalie’s, and like the title of sole survivor, she owns it.

Natalie Anderson is fucking incredible because we see her grow as a person more than anybody else in the history of the show. It’s not even a growth arc. It's not met with trumpets and fanfare and a tearful goodbye. This motherfucking badass learns as she grows. Her arc is not a story of change, from couch potato to tactical god, but the simple joy of discovering one’s own inner strength. Starving in nicaragua and alone for the first time in her life, I guarantee you Natalie self-reflected. It would not have made her ordeal any easier, just possible to overcome. So as the majestic story of SJDS unfolds, presented nakedly and raw is Natalie’s growth and endurance. It is not a major plot point of the season, but it’s there. Watching Natlie’s anguish and frustration from losing Nadiya, shift to her quiet and prophetic resolve to avenge Jeremy, and finally the evolution to her shrewd political maneuvering around Jaclyn and Baylor before winning the whole goddamn game.

She is the winner who grows, but the fact that she is not anointed with a classical growth arc means that they don’t force her into a heroic light. We are not always the hero of the story. Sometimes, finding your inner strength doesn’t mean you come out of the game a self-actualized buddha, or Superwoman. Sometimes, like in Natalie’s case, it means honing your instincts and just learning how to survive. Due to this, her sense of timing and scale is a different level entirely. By the end, you could drop her into [one of the not-terrible seasons of] Game of Thrones and she would probably do just fine. Her growth, despite being one of the season’s heros, means learning how to be a villain.

San Juan Del Sur plays out like if Kill Bill was a reality show. The entire premerge, from losing Nadiya to being on one of the most powerful tribes in survivor history is set up for the season’s turn. Jeremy being blindsided, and Natlie being left out of the vote lights an incredible fire under her ass. While we can see her world crumble, her power in freefall, Natalie is one of the few people to ever recover from being blindsided and go on to win. Normally getting caught on the wrong side of a game changing vote means that you follow your partner in crime out the door. That doesn’t happen though. Wielding her instinct like a goddamn katana, she takes out Josh. Natalie, through following her instincts, fully changes the tide. It's a lot like Vanuatu. I think I have been very blessed to be able to write about both Ami and Natalie because they have very similar energies on two seasons with a nearly identical storyline. Natlie begins her dark horse sprint to the finish earlier in the season and with slightly more options than Chris did, but they each were able to pretty much do it on their own. These two seasons really are the some of the best survivor has ever done. Each combines a killer revenge arc with salient discussions about gender politics within our culture and how certain genders behave when in power. The major differences being which genders have power, and who gets revenge. Why I think San Juan Del Sur just barely edges out its sister season is because of Natalie and the power of the loved ones. The stakes are very much raised and it pays off with Natlie being fucking electric every step of the way.

Natalie Anderson was presented with a choice. She could give up and follow her sister out the door, or she could continue to endeavor into a literal unknown. My best friends are like those weighted blankets they give to people with sensory disorders or to deal with panic attacks. They keep me grounded, and feeling loved. Nat spent nearly the entirety of her life with her sister, her best friend. Choosing to go forward without Nadiya, making that choice to be separated from her sister the more successful she was in the game, was a massive risk. And she did it, Nat overcame her fears and truly triumphed. She was able to do that all on her own and learn fly-by-wire. I’ll be honest with you here, Natalie doesn’t really fail. Everyone around her does, and yet the pain of their failure clearly hits her hard. It is difficult to watch loved ones not be able to achieve whatever they set out to do. What Natalie teaches us though, is that we are never truly alone, even when we might most feel like it. Even though Natalie wins, she still had low moments where she must have grappled with not being able to protect her allies and friends. She carried their memory, and their legacy with her. Even if they weren’t physically there to support her, their spirits were.

I guarantee you that you have a Natalie Anderson in your life who will carry you with them. And you might even be someone else’s Natalie, and not even realize it. We are never as alone as we feel, and when we are really down there at the depths of our misery, our Natalie Anderson type friends will be there with some awkward humor and the spirit of vengeance to try and make things right. That might not make your current circumstance feel less like hell, but hopefully it will make you feel like you can overcome it. Natalie overcame being alone, and I believe that is an act we all can follow. If not, then watch out because she might yell at your boyfriend for saying racist and homosexual stuff. :)

vulture_couture: 7

CSteino: 10

scorcherkennedy: 12

xerop681: 4

JM1295: 12

GwenHarper: 1

qngff: 4

Average Placement: 7.142857143

#8: Tom Westman 1.0

/u/vulture_couture:

I'm just putting him this high because he's hot. This is entirely a #SurvivorBeauty vote. Deal with it.

It’s easy to assume that one of the historically most dominant winners on Survivor would be boring. That's a criticism routinely leveled at other dominant winners like Kim Spradlin, Yul Kwon or Boston Robert. Yet Tom evades the same critique and for good reason. Just given his position in the game, you would think that there wouldn't be much excitement in watching Tom win and yet. He has enough charisma to level a mountain and people are pretty aware of his power position and they fight really hard to take him out, they just can't. He's an absolute titan of the game and he's willing to go dirty to achieve his goals. He basically turns the endgame of Palau into a Freudian nightmare of never being able to measure up to his friend's/father figure's expectations for Ian and it ends up paying off 100%. Tom is such a fitting winner for a war-themed season because the tactics he uses to keep people in check are often brutal, relentless and military-like and near everybody respects him for it.

Out of the two authoritative father figures in this endgame, Tom is the one who's more interesting to me because the show takes him 100% seriously and while he comes out the hero of the story, it doesn't shy away from the pain he causes to other people either. There's no way to look at the Ian drama by the end of Palau and not be a little bit scared of Tom and the lengths he's willing to go to for money and yet he's still a winner most everybody respects. The audience is trusted to see the dark side and to accept it and it makes for a more compelling story, which is why I'm at peace with Endgame Tom even though I would absolutely not have him this high.

Also there's that one time he got blackout drunk. That was funny.

/u/CSteino:

Most badass to ever play. Killed a shark. Fantastic winner. One of the most stone-cold players ever. Yep, endgame.

/u/scorcherkennedy:

The person Andrew Savage prays to every night. A dynamo of a winner and character and walks a tightrope between being one of Survivor's greatest heroes and one of it's more manipulative bastards. Also someone who's win feels the most linked to the theme of their season, anyone else winning Palau wouldn't feel as apt.

/u/JM1295:

Tom manages to be one of Survivor's best heroes, despite being quite manipulative and deceptive. He's great as the alpha male, top dog leader of Koror, but Tom is at his best when he's on edge and on shaky grounds. Scenes like Tom strongarming Katie or forcing a tie are great moments where Tom drops the veil just a bit in how aggressive he can play. A character like Tom dont tend to be my favorite kind of characters, but the way he straddles his villainous actions with his heroic demeanor is fantastic.

/u/GwenHarper:

Funny, charming, all-American hunky silver fox out in Palau for the adventure. Challenge god, and integral to all the season’s drama. Tom Westman is basically the male Tina Wesson and despite me not really being a fan of alpha-male centric storylines, the dude is fantastic. He hovers right around my personal endgame and I cannot wait to see what people have to say about him.

/u/qngff:

Personal Endgame Ranking: 8

Personal Overall Ranking: 32

Tom, the ultimate hero. A great character, super important to why Palau was excellent, and the most dominant challenge beast of all time. Tom has earned his place in the annals of history among the greats.

/u/xerop681:

Tom Westman (Palau, 1st place)

Tom Westman is, without question, the most interesting instance we’ve seen of a dominant leader on Survivor - and despite the everlasting praise of Ian (I love him too, don’t worry!) I do believe that he is the strongest character on Palau. Additionally, despite several other solid picks that wouldn’t make me roll my eyes and say “YOU’RE WRONG”, I do think that Tom is the best winner in survivor history as far as characters go… why? Oh geez, now I have to explain myself.

I can associate many negative words and many positive words with how I feel about Tom Westman personally in Palau - on the one hand, he is an absolutely self-righteous asshole, he’s got an ego the actual size of Palau, he can be condescending, he’s arrogant, I could go on and on. But there’s also the opposite side, the good traits of Tom - the first thing I think of when I think of Tom is, holy shit this dude is charismatic as hell. He basically uses his charisma to swing around all those negative traits he has and his sliminess so that in the end, he still looks like the good guy. He is also an incredible leader that lead his “underdog” tribe to being the best tribe ever, he is obviously a hero being a 9/11 firefighter, he’s an incredible provider for his tribe, again, I could go on and on about why Tom is a good guy, and a hero but… who wants to read that?

One thing that I recently saw on the sub is someone saying that Tom is not a good character because he is way too whitewashed and I just had to think… what? I think it’s really amazing that despite having so many traits that generally lead towards being a villain, or the obvious hero take with him being a 9/11 firefighter who leads the best tribe ever on to victor and ends up steamrolling the season, it’s amazing that editors were still able to keep Tom’s character in the grey as a character morally - it just makes it such a fascinating watch to see his story unfold, like his constant (but silent) battle between both sides, but you can see as the season goes on and on Tom has to compromise his “hero” morales more and more, and has to get more brutal and cut throat to his cast mates if he’s going to end up winning. In the end, survivor is a game of deception.

Another criticism I see given towards Tom is that he is too dominant of a winner - which, if you just read the Palau wiki or asked someone on /r/survivor, you may get that answer - haha just kidding, i’m not that far up my own ass. Tom is definitely a very dominant player and more or less controls the entire season and I could see why that would turn someone off of him - but for me, it’s probably the most interesting part of his character. Like, what’s the version of Palau where Tom does have a downfall? Gregg/Jenn actually successfully pull out a coup and blindside him, which I'm not sure if anyone here would be rooting for a Gregg or Jenn win over most other people in the final 6, or Ian takes him out at F3 and Ian wins, which would nullify one of the best moments in Survivor history and make for one of the weirdest winners ever. I believe i’ve already said this but nah, I think Tom’s dominance is by far the most interesting part of Palau. There’s just something about watching Tom be such a controversial figure to the people around him - some love him, some are sick of Tom being up his own ass and want him out - and so many reasonable oppositions being formed (Coby, Steph, The Gregg-Jenn alliance, Caryn, Ian) only for them to literally be thwarted down every single time that’s… amazing, captivating, compelling, insert buzz word. And it definitely plays into the idea of Tom being a more ruthless and cut throat figure as the season goes on, but… i’ll get to that later, don’t want to spoil the writeup!

Okay, now for the meat of Tom… which is basically his entire journey from the moment he landed on the Palau beach to the moment he won the title of Sole Survivor. From start to end, not a single let up, not a moment to breathe, he’s just absolutely dripped with story and development.

Tom starts out the season playing hard, forming a four person alliance with Ian, Katie, and Steph. To a first time viewer this would seem pretty inconsequential - after all, Tom, Ian, and Katie are split up from Stephenie about 10 minutes later - buttt it’s one of those “we’ll get back to you” storylines: because it’s time for Stephenie to suffer on Ulong while Tom thrives on Koror.

The assembly of Koror is Part I of the Tom Westman story. Palau has it’s infamous day 1 tribe pick, and Koror is given the option between staying at the beach they started at, or going to explore and find a new beach. Tom, who had basically been elected as the tribes leader, makes the call that a new camp is an adventure, different, and they should go there… thus, Koror swims off, away from that cursed aura of Ulong beach, wiping off every microfiber of that camp off them, on to a path of victory… but of course like any “hero” story, it wasn’t always a good run for Koror.

The first night for Koror was like, kind of a disaster? I don’t remember the EXACT details so i’ll just make them up - it was a very dark, stormy night as the tribe emerged on Koror beach. Wilbur and Ian had both been throwing up for the entire boat ride there, polluting the water - Tom remarked that he hoped there were still sharks and snakes left for him to catch, but had worried the puke and the stench that had been generated from his farts were too much for the marine life.

Now, that story is 100% made up, but what is true is that Koror didn’t have the best first night - one could even call them… the “underdog” tribe. Tom realizes that he probably made the wrong choice by picking that they go to the new camp, and resolves that if his tribe is going to get out of their position as the underdog tribe, he needs to stand up and lead them, like really lead them. It’s really badass to think that maybe at some point there was a chance Koror and Ulong were pretty even tribes dynamic wise, until one night when Tom made the resolution that he was going to lead his tribe to victory - in some form of dramatic irony, leadership was the one thing Ulong was missing. It’s also funny to imagine that Tom was going to play a super lowkey, behind the scenes game up until the moment: Like, “oh yeah… i’ll probably make a move and stop throwing immunities till final 5??? Until then, i’m staying UTR the whole time…”

This is the first phase of the game for Tom, the pre-merge, before the storm, before things get ugly. Tom is 100% at his most heroic during this phase: I mean, how can your edit not come across at least pretty positive when you’re being painted as the hero who lead your tribe to victory. I’ve always imagined that during the Ulong era, Koror is like a summer camp: everyone’s just chilling around, surviving, it doesn’t feel like survivor yet, even though it is, of course. Lots of the early scenes on Koror are dedicated to just how they survive, and how Tom leads them as a team. There are a lot of really awesome scenes here, like Ian and Gregg being lead to Tom to go kill a group of snakes for survival, and of course the epic rivalry of Tom vs The Shark, which is just badass as hell. The tides are rough, the sky dark, and after an epic battle… Tom actually gets to catch a shark! I’m not sure what my favorite part about this - like Tom Westman is like the epitome of badass, alpha male, and him catching a shark really amplifies that image - I also love his reaction where he says “I caught a shark!” which sounds… really generic typing it out, but the way he’s kind of laughing and smiling with that classic Tom Westman charm, oh yeah, you can TELL Tom is proud of how he fucking owned that shark. I also love how it is built up over multiple episodes, like it’s built up enough that you could call Tom vs The Shark a storyline, almost plays out like an urban legend/greek myth - ”Tom vs The Shark”. It truly does doing a good job as setting Tom up as this really badass, larger than life figure, leader, and survivalist in the game.

Of course, like any summer camp, Koror has gossip, secrets, cliques, romance, and plotting... now, despite my love for this tribe, I am going to try not to talk too much about non-Tom related stuff… but also I should say, Tom is a crucial figure on this tribe, so he is involved in… quite a bit of this drama, particularly gossip, cliques, and the plotting.

When starting this writeup I was kind of… confused? About how I was going to approach it - I knew what I wanted to say, but Tom is such a mighty character that covers so much ground I didn’t know how i’d be able to say it coherently, especially describing Tom’s pre-merge game.

I guess the best way I would put it is that it feels like Tom is built up almost like a political figure during the pre-merge portion of the game: I want to say due to how mythological and epic Tom already is, he’s more like a roman emperor then a modern politician so sure, let’s go with that. Everyone on Koror has an opinion on Tom, everyone on Koror forms their game around Tom, he’s basically a center piece for everyone. You have Katie and Ian who are firmly team Tom, his ride or dies, his confidents… then after there it’s like this weird scale of feelings towards Tom. Jenn/Gregg are “with” Tom, but they are little snakes in the grass… Gregg plans to throw a little coup on Tom eventually, using his two big detractors, Janu and Coby.

Tom and Coby just did not get along - mainly because as the game went on, Tom had weakened as a leader. He still did an amazing job “commanding the ship” and leading Koror to victory, but as a sociable figure, he had grown dismissive, cutthroat, even. He was close with and listened to the main people in his inner circle; Ian, Katie, Jenn, and Gregg, while dismissing people like Caryn, Coby, and Janu, probably some complex about how he’s saving them from a pre-merge fate anyways, so he doesn’t need to increase his kindness. This is like the part of the season where Tom really begins to blur the line between hero and villain: like yeah, Tom is leading the most successful tribe in survivor history which is pretty heroic, and yeah, on a surface he is nice… but then there’s the villain side where it feels like Tom is just a charismatic sleazebag putting on a face for his tribe, and also the element of him alienating people. So anyways, obviously Tom being such a figure in his tribe, he’s going to rub some people the wrong way… those people being Coby and Janu. Maybe in another life, Tom being dismissive leads to more physical weakness among Koror, they lose a couple of challenges, and he gets whacked pre-merge… I mean, more realistically Katie gets blindsided, but i’m being hypothetical! It’s an interesting timeline to think about, but of course Tom beasts his tribe to merge and stops any chance of him/his allies getting blindsided.

Now for Part II of Tom’s story - Summer Camp has closed down for the year, Merge Has Sprung and it’s about to get real nasty. There is no doubt that Tom has some amazing moments pre-merge - like just generally watching him navigate through Koror is fun and seeing lead them on little expeditions is fun, and like ofc the shark hunt is legendary… yeah Tom’s a great character there. But still, he almost feels like more of a figure piece pre-merge, than he does this really personalized character? If we’re going to get really out there with analogies, during the pre-merge it seems like Tom is some sort of survivor god, the Koror people being the pieces he manipulates and… well, when the tribes “merge” that’s when he descends down and decides to play ball with the rest of them...

Yes, alas, the gods have awoken, and Tom has finally come down to play. Obviously since I just wrote 2+ pages about it I love Tom during the pre-merge, but I love just a little bit more during the post-merge, and I would say his content here is the reason why I love Tom and place him in my top 3 - it’s when he’s at his sleaziest, most fucked up, charming, ALL the good stuff, and it’s when his storyline of having to get more brutal as the game goes on really hits its peak.

Leading off the last paragraph, i’ve always really liked the “merge” episode of Palau because it feels like an epic tale of this larger than life figure, Tom, actually getting humanized?? Weird to say because like, yes, obviously Tom is human, but also like… yeah, he’s such a burly beast of a man during the first half, it's nice to see him get knocked down to earth. Drunk Tom during the episode is absolutely hilarious, I think there’s always some sort of appeal of watching a figure you once idolized at their absolute “weakest” - ie. getting hammered.

Not only did Tom descend down to inform us that yes, he is human, he also came into the merge to play. He’s really badass in the first merge challenge which is the traditional “stand on a poll till there’s only one person left” thing. Even when someone asks Tom if he’ll drop, he refuses it, attributing it to him being Irish and ihm being stubborn… and he wins immunity! The first of many epic wins.

Tom has officially made merge and what’s the first move he makes? Well, for one he reunites with Stephenie and rekindles the alliance they had day 1 so he has a trump card over everyone else, and his first order of business is to cut down his #1 enemy in the game, Coby. Like, Coby had basically committed his entire game plan to get Tom out eventually and it seemed like he was succeeding - mainly because while he was plotting against Tom, Tom was out there making sure the tribe won. So it really is a testament to how brutal Tom is that once he actually started to play a really strategic game, he cuts Coby without a second thought - he basically brutally murdered someone who had spent their game against him without breaking a sweat, it’s amazing and captivating as hell and just makes for one of the best merge episodes in general. Janu falls soon after Coby, and it looks like Tom is going to have a relatively easy run to the end of the game.

If we want to consider Part I of Tom’s story to be like this summer camp journey through Koror, and the first two merge rounds to be Part II, some sort of weird intermission period where we’re just starting to see how Tom can play the game and also be dominant on the individual aspect, Part III is like a Hell Storm. It is Tom at his absolute most… well, Tom. While Tom should be in a good spot with the three person powerhouse of Him-Ian-Katie, along with an easy boot in Stephenie, the sun has set on easy days in the game… the jello is jiggling. Any other survivor leader would’ve fallen by their sword at this point, a noble loss, but Tom just sharpens his sword and tells all the people who want him out to “bring it on”.

First up, Tom needs to get rid of his old ally, Stephenie. This is a really crazy round - the girls try to get together an all girls alliance so they can pull a coup, but Caryn sucks, for whatever reason Caryn is actually causing a lot of chaos this round (and for the rest of the season), basically everyone is playing with the idea of taking out Tom over Steph… but it’s not enough, Tom is able to course correct (along with the help of Ian) and Stephenie ends up getting taken out 6-1. Again, this feels like another triumphant defeat for Tom, mainly because, did Stephenie vote for Tom to at least give a fight? No, she settled on the person who was the “easy” vote, Caryn, and got burned anyways.

It’s top 6, The Lone Ulonger is down, and Tom’s latest problem? Gregg - without a doubt the dark horse that threatens to take the game away from Tom. Gregg wins an award and takes Katie and Jenn, and naturally Tom/Ian assume that Gregg is about to shoot his shot at taking the win away from them. I must say that there’s always been something really badass about the following scene where Ian, Caryn, and Tom plot to strike back at Gregg - I don’t know, just a really really awesome scene and gets you pumped up for the boot that’s about to come. The rest of the episode is… basically a glorified heist, you can kind of tell since Tom/Ian are two of the main characters and Gregg is more of a background player that he’s not going to take out Caryn then pagong both of them, but it’s more so compelling to watch the plan fall into place: first they need to beat Gregg in immunity, success, and they need to flip Katie last minute… also success. In probably the biggest competition Tom has faced yet, he takes out Gregg 4-2. Notably, it is also his second major betrayal in a row, although he’s still putting up the “honor, loyalty, integrity” front… the blant hypocriticism of Tom will become even more noticeable during…

Part IV - The Book of Ian - sure, that’s a name! Throughout his entire reign in Palau, one thing had remained consistent for Tom - Ian’s loyalty. Even close allies like Katie briefly plotted against Tom, but not Ian. Together they shared a father-son relationship, a bromance, whatever you want to call it, it was there, and they really valued the shit out of each other. Ian valued it so much that - against his better judgment - he took Tom on an award that he had promised to Katie at the final 5.

To call everything that happened from here on out just an absolute mindfuck of Ian wouldn’t be unjustified. The final 5 episode of Palau is a pretty dramatic one - one of the most intense and real fights between Ian and Katie, along with Caryn being… well, Caryn, and yelling at basically everyone. It’s such a crazy turn of events I can’t recap it, but they end up cutting Caryn 4-1.

Honestly the Palau endgame is so damn chaotic it feels weird to say that “the end is near” about the finale because, damn that thing is jam packed. At first it seems relatively simple - despite their arguing, Tom, Katie, and Ian all seem to be together again, so… naturally to give Tom the most brutal coronation possible, we’re going to need to give him a bit more drama to overcome, right? Ian and Katie decided to… gasp flip on Tom - which honestly feels like a pretty obvious move at that point… they just have to beat Tom in immunity, and he’s gone. Which is kind of a funny statement to make, considering beating Tom in an individual immunity that isn’t partly luck based is probably the hardest thing to do at that point - low and behold, Ian puts up an effort, but fails, and Tom wins his safety.

It seems like leading up to tribal, everything is settled for Jenn to go home… but Tom then finds out that Ian and Katie planned to betray him, and he loses it - like really really loses it, mainly at Ian.

Ask yourself, is it right for Tom to betray Gregg and Stephenie so brutally, while preaching loyalty, integrity, all that shit, and then to get mad at Ian for doing the same? I mean, no, probably not. The final 4 fight is the thing that should unveil the curtain more than any other Palau moment that Tom was the villain all along - well, maybe not a villain, but despite being an awesome leader and 9/11 firefighter, he definitely ain’t no hero - his balant hypocriticism should trigger some thoughts about other Tom moments during the season and make viewers think, oh damn.

But anyways, Tom yelling at Ian is a great scene. It’s like, the one moment during the entire post-merge where Tom drops his badass exterior and lets out some pure emotion - removing his titan armour. I think while Tom is kind of being a hypocrite here, he is 100% justified in his anger towards Ian because he’s had to play a post-merge where, one point or another, basically everyone had tried to end his reign… except for Ian, who was the ONE friend he had, or at least he thought. Naturally Tom lets out his anger by trying to take a shot at Ian, because hey, if he isn’t his friend, he’s the biggest threat, right? But it’s to no success as Ian wins fire and Jenn goes home.

Alright, now it’s time for the moment. The final immunity challenge - which I would personally call the peak of everything about Ian and Tom’s storylines. Ian because… well, i’m sure someone will dive into that in the Ian writeup, and Tom’s because this is do or die. During Palau there’s one constant question: can… can Tom actually win? If it was a modern survivor, he’d probably lose. Well, if it was modern survivor he’d probably idol himself 3 times in a row then win fire making which isn’t really a win, but hey… that’s another topic. This challenge is make or break - after a season of being a god, after a season of betrayal, after a season of hell, a season of fakeness… I can go on and on, but after all this, can Tom win?

He can win - although I'd be lying if it wasn’t because of a bit of tragedy. Ian is forced to analyze his situation - the drama with Katie at the final 5, and the drama with Tom at final 4 - and decides, yepI'm out! And GIVES UP immunity to Tom… after a long, nearly 12 hour battle. Tom has to vote out his buddy Ian :( and it’s a really emotional and sad moment, as much as it’s probably also relieving for Tom.

Tom’s done it. He wins final immunity and he goes on to win 6-1 over Katie. Even after seeing this season multiple times, it still feels weird to say that, yes, Tom did it. It’s like an incredible moment of relief after 39 days of absolute war, like I would basically match it with the same relief you feel when Frodo says, “It’s gone. It’s done.” in Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Through all the bull shit, all the throats Tom had to cut, it was all worth it, because he actually pulled it off.

Man… that was quite the task, summarizing Tom’s whole journey in Palau - he is 100% the most crucial cog to the seasons story, closely involved in basically every round and piece of conflict, so there’s no real way to be brief.

What a sleazy, hypocritical, sneaky person Tom is. Going into this writeup I thought that Tom was just a big old blur between hero and villain, but after looking at his whole game i’m lead to believe he leans more into the “villain” side: however he puts on a brave face and is just SO DAMN CHARISMATIC that me makes himself look good, like a true survivor hero - like ugh, he’s just so damn charming I can’t help but love him and root for him to steam roll the game, despite the fact that every other bone in my body says, “no, this is definitely a villain who needs a downfall”... he makes it work: he entices me, I'm attracted to his bullshitery and how transparent he is, I can’t help but be fascinated that he was able to make it to the end and win. Truly one of the most fascinating stories we’ve ever seen. There are some things that Tom gets away with saying that just wouldn’t work if he was anyone else - for example, him saying that he shouldn’t be the winner because “He’s already had his payday” at FTC is one of the most obviously bullshit and transparent things i’ve ever seen, but since it’s Tom Westman, he makes it work. There’s also this moment after the Janu quit where Stephenie is obviously really upset that Tom was going to vote her out, but Tom insists that, no, she wouldn’t of gone, and then places his immunity necklace around her neck and says that she earned it. HOW DOES THIS FUCKER PULL THIS SHIT OFF? TOM, PLEASE GIVE ME YOUR MIST. Gosh. He’s just such a snake and he gets so ruthless and so dominant and SOOOO MEAN as the game goes on, how the fuck did he pull this off? Charisma.

Really, really long paragraph, so I will sum it up - Tom’s game shouldn’t of worked. People should’ve seen through him and turned against him eventually. But he’s Tom fucking Westman, so for him it works, and it’s an amazing spectacle to see. I think there’s no better winner for Palau, and really, few better characters.

3/14

Author’s Note: Okay, kind of a long one - this was a HARD writeup. Ofc I love Tom and made deals to get him here so I knew I'd have to tackle it eventually, but still, damn. He’s just such a fascinating character with SO MUCH STORY HOLY SHIT that it’s really hard to write about him and worry I missed something, and there were like 1000 points and ideas I had to put in this writeup that I ignored in favor of not making it more clogged then it already is. Hope you all enjoyed! :)

vulture_couture: 9

CSteino: 9

scorcherkennedy: 4

xerop681: 3

JM1295: 8

GwenHarper: 10

qngff: 8

Average Placement: 7.285714286

#9. James Clement 1.0

/u/vulture_couture:

I'm not really gonna put much effort into this one since I already did a more thorough James writeup that got idoled. But what I would say here is that why I think James isn't really close to an endgame character is that we really don't know much about his motivations, what drives him, what makes him tick ever. He just reacts to stuff. But I guess I can't be too mad that a complex lovable asshole like him got his time in the sun for once.

/u/CSteino:

Even though I have James a spot or two outside my personal endgame, I am so so so happy he got for the first time. It was definitely a travesty he had never made it before and as one of the most purely entertaining, funny, and awesome characters the show has ever had, I’m excited to see him finally make an endgame.

/u/scorcherkennedy:

I'm lower on all of the James's than the consensus and I do think his status as a great comedic character is a little overstated (oh wow he woke up the tribe! I just coughed up my intestines from laughing so hard!) but he's a very original character with an iconic exit that still resonates.

/u/xerop681:

James is amazing - unique, funny, and endearing… and hell, he’s got a pretty solid storyline too. Survivor: China was the second season of Survivor I watched as a kid, but like I didn’t care for Fiji too much and just played with action figures or something while it was on in the background sooooo… basically the first! Now, if you asked childhood Xerop to recount the events of Survivor: China he would be able to tell you jack shit, but one thing he would make sure to highlight is that he absolutely ADORED James… like I adored him. And i’m glad to say that 12 years later, adult Xerop does too!

Simply one of the funniest and most interesting casting choices we’ve ever seen - I love the dynamic as this big, burly, strong man who’s actually surprisingly timid and shy in social situations and I also love… basically everything he says the entire season. I’m glad he’s finally made an endgame!

/u/GwenHarper:

Yes!! It finally happened y’all. The gravedigger is in endgame. The frank talking, no-nonsense soundbite machine and big ol’ bear with a golden apple for a heart finally made the top 14. I love James in China. He’s so fucking good in like every scene and has probably the best intro in survivor history.

/u/qngff:

Personal Endgame Ranking: 6

Personal Overall Ranking: 16

After five years, he finally made endgame, and well deserved too. James is one of the most intriguing characters we’ve ever seen on the show. A quiet gravedigger from Louisiana with enormous muscles, but a much more calm demeanor sitting back watching the craziness unfold. He’s always a treasure to watch onscreen and his blindside with both idols is nothing short of legendary. James is one of the most integral parts of China as a season and why it’s so fantastic. His interactions with everyone whether it be Todd, Jaime, Courtney, Jean-Robert, whoever are always great. He’s hilarious, intelligent, strong, plays hard, is a fantastic narrator, and his apple confessional is probably my favorite in all of China. One of Survivor’s biggest Heroes ever and one of its greatest characters also.

/u/JM1295: Coming into this rankdown, I had a lot of goals and things I wanted to accomplish. Some went pretty well for me like getting Brandon and Jaime into the top 100 or getting Courtney Marit a super high ranking. Others not so good like Angie Layton falling very short or Yul and Cochran making very deep runs in this and honestly not vote stealing someone like Jaime to go even further. In retrospect, I wish I would have done more to protect some of my favorites like guaranteeing Eliza makes endgame or Chase topping Nicaragua for once. With all that said, the one I was most passionate about was getting James to cross that finish line finally. Barring SR4, James always comes super close to making endgame, but falls around the top 20 mark. Even in the last few rounds, I began questioning if I should just save Eliza over James when I realized Eliza was in serious danger. I do love Eliza just a tad more, but what pushed me to idol James is the fear that he might not ever make it if I don’t at least try to get him there. He might remain like a Lil who people really like but can never quite make it to endgame and misses out time and time again. Ideally, I wanted to get both Eliza and James here, but I knew it wasn’t happening and chose to stick with James here.

So let’s talk about James for a second here and wow, what a fantastic casting choice! Like, his entire background and introduction feels unreal as this 30-year-old introverted, buff gravedigger from Louisiana. That’s amazing stuff on paper and even better, James is great on the island as well. Every part of his background that I described there is present and displayed on the show. He feels very unique as a new take on the more socially awkward kind of character Survivor casts compared to say Matthew from Amazon and shows Survivor’s very strong track record in casting these eccentric introvert types. James also feels very unique from the usual African Americans on the show like a Dreamz or Sean Rector in that he doesn’t come from the inner city or even like an Osten who is like a fish out of water in Pearl Islands, while James thrives in China. Everything about James Clement 1.0 feels very special and different and adds to the legend of his character.

Before going any further, I do want to add that it kind of sucks how much James’ reputation has tanked within the general survivor community. I mean just looking at his 3 seasons and the trajectory he goes, it makes sense. His asshole tendencies are more prominent as the seasons go on and he feels less authentic and genuine as we see more of him. Still knowing how good he is in China, should at least get him a bit more love from the community. He’s pretty easily the male icon of middle school Survivor with Cirie being his female counterpart. I do think this is preaching to the choir in the rankdown community since there wasn’t that much of an objection to James making endgame, but still wanted to get that out there haha.

I already mentioned what a unique and great casting choice James is and this lends to his confessionals and general any speaking lines or quotes from James. I wouldn’t say he’s a world class and insanely articulate speaker, but he has such a cool and unique way of delivering confessionals. He has a thick, very rural accent being from Louisiana that makes any of his lines so much better. It’s sometimes so thick, you kind of need some subtitles for James but it’s all so good. Some of James greatest lines here are:

• If Denise was 10 years longer, she’d be in trouble
• I bury people
• He shut him up
• I’m on Survivor with two idols. That’s funny

There’s this other hilarious line James has about going to Barnes and Nobles a few months prior to heading out to China and knowing more about the outdoors than everyone else. It’s kind of hard to make out because of James’ thick accent, but it’s one of my favorite quotes from James. Also, wanted to mention his amazing rant when confronting Aaron on work around camp and that he and Aaron are really the only two who can do much physically since they have a stewardess, two older women, and JR being JR on their tribe.

This also extends further than just his speaking and confessionals, but James even sells all these funny moments and scene with his body language and reactions. Like him being in awe of JR being shut up by Todd at FTC is even better when you see him cracking him about I as JR returns to the jury lmao. Or his deadpan delivery and very serious tone in telling Leslie that he buries people. It’s all so glorious and what makes James one of the funniest contestants the show has had. So expressive and dynamic and sells it even better with his very rural accent.

I want to back up and talk about that introduction scene we get with James. It’s one of my favorite introductions we get to a Survivor character. As we see James being a total workhorse around camp and dropping trees like they’re fucking legos, Leslie tries making conversation since James has been so quiet. The “I bury people” is gold, but more than anything else it hits on all of James’ main selling points. We get James’ very fun way of speaking, touches on what an asset James is and his physique, and also touches on James being much more of a loner. It’s pretty funny though to see James as an introvert for many reasons. The main one being his physique and appearance and it isn’t what one would think of for a stereotypical introvert. Also, you wouldn’t imagine an introvert would think to align with Jean Robert of all people lmao. It’s very present through the season, where James comes off just a tad socially awkward and unaware. Him nearly killing Todd with just a punch is a perfect example of this <3. It also lends to how brutally honest and frank he is throughout the game with little to no filter.

Let’s transition into that point too here. James has very little tact when he takes issue with something in the game. He doesn’t have it in him to be fake just for the sake of the game. His early confrontation with Aaron is a good example of this, but so is his reaction to the aftermath of Peih Gee and Jaime throwing the challenge. Even with PG is seemingly offering him a chance to survive and outlast Aaron, James is having none of it. Even when PG is shocked by how upset he is, she asks if they should send him home and he fires back with, “Yeah, send my ass home” <3. He is later very blunt again with PG about her position in the game postmerge as well. It’s one of James best qualities that he is so off the cuff and real in the game. He does come off as an ass at times, but it never really detracts from him as a character and just adds to his arc. Same can’t be said a few seasons down the line lol.

I wanted a separate post for James during the swap though, because holy shit this is peak James Clement. China had a notoriously unfair swap with the two strongest members of each tribe being swapped and left for dead basically. Zhan Hu would go onto throw the challenge not so subtly, but man James is having none of it. He gets pissed at PG for even having the gall to answer Jeff’s question and with “’I’m good at Sudoku” no less lmao. Getting back to camp he pretty much tells both the girls they suck and is appalled at them not taking any of this serious. I already mentioned it, but I love that James is fuming so badly he won’t even hear PG out to boot Aaron and save himself and would prefer to be sent home. He more or less tells PG to fuck off which is so good and so James <3.

Things don’t end here as James gets handed an idol by Todd and later finds the idol at Zhan Hu. He cracks up thinking about Jaime and the others looking for and finding this Chinese tribal camp sign and thinking it’s an idol, which happens exactly lmao. Honestly, it’s kind of a shame we didn’t get to see James idol out Jaime at the very next tribal council, that might have elevated them both much higher as characters.

There are quite a few fun relationships James has on China and it’s easier to count the people he doesn’t have a cool bond with. He has this odd relationship with JR where they are aligned together, but he is constantly making fun of him. Whether that’s at FTC, his general inability to shut up, him showing off his ability to speak Mandarin. They’re conversation by the river early on Fei Long is hysterical, mostly because it’s just JR being sleazy and James listening in awe. James also has this nice relationship with Denise and it’s always cool to see people from very different backgrounds get along and come together. James also has solid bonds with Todd, Amanda, and Courtney as well.

His relationship with PG is a bit different compared to his others. He dogs Jaime pretty hard too, but PG being the only one from Zhan Hu in the endgame led to her and James clashing a lot more. They’re not too different in being very honest and blunt, which leads to their conflict. PG wasn’t the most liked person in general around camp, but James was the only one who would really be totally honest with her. As she is upset about being on shaky grounds in the game, he retorts back with “yeah, you’re definitely on the outs” <3.

James’ exit from the game on paper is so unique and distinct, especially for season 15 of Survivor. Going out with two idols at the final 7 after making so many biblical references to not bite the apple and getting voted off before PG as well. It’s not as though it comes out of nowhere or isn’t telegraphed well enough. It’s a good conclusion for James and again feels super unique. It just feels better on paper than in reality for me. This obviously isn’t a huge knock against James since I have him in my top 10 and it’s not as though this is a bad end for James’ arc at all. It doesn’t help that we get a lot of strategy talk from Amanda and Todd in James’ boot episode too. Though one major positive here is how great James is with his final words and showing off his two idols alol.

Some other side notes here that I didn’t get to work into my main points. James was particularly fun at tribal council. I think of him calling Erik adorable after how sweet and kind he is towards the entire tribe and playing hard even in the minority <3. Him commenting on JR being incapable to simply be quiet is also great as well as his laughter at Jaime playing her fake idol. Him referring to Leslie with “people who pray the most are the biggest sinners” is pretty fantastic, despite being an asshole comment. Also, all the biblical references during the postmerge leading up to his blindside were all so good. This was more just great James commentary, but I couldn’t fit it all into that one entry on awesome James quotes haha.

Regardless of where he ranks here (though I am hoping he at least makes top 10), I am so ecstatic I was able to get James Clement to endgame! I knew he was in my top 10 and he was a really great character, but I didn’t realize quite how many layers he had to him and what a dynamite character until I checked my notes in doing this writeup. He’s one of the funniest people the show has ever had, but in such a different way with his distinct accent. His authenticity and how real he is, is also one of James’ main selling points and really goes hand in hand with his humor. What most stands out about James above all else is even after nearly 40 seasons, James still feels so completely and totally unique to this day. A very fit and strong, loner, funny Louisiana gravedigger is just an amazing background and casting choice and James constantly delivers on China. Outstanding and slam dunk character and it’s about time he got his dues in a rankdown!

vulture_couture: 12

CSteino: 8

scorcherkennedy: 10

xerop681: 11

JM1295: 7

GwenHarper: 9

qngff: 6

Average Placement: 9.0

Tiebreaker Process:

| High/Low Removed | High/Low Removed x2 | Median :--|:--|:--|:-- James | 9.0 | 9.0 | 9 Steph | 9.4 | 9.333333333 | 9

James wins 2/3 (and is higher for 4/7 people)

Our first of two ties in this endgame! The tiebreaker process will be revealed in the next post.

#10: Stephenie LaGrossa 1.0

/u/vulture_couture:

Mildly hot take maybe? I would prefer Guatemala Steph to be here over Palau Steph. I love the dark, entitled, drunk on glory version of Steph 2.0 so much.

Palau Steph feels like such an inevitable endgamer in a way it's almost surprising this is her first time making it out of all these rankdowns. The Fall of Ulong leaves as one of the biggest heroic figures Survivor has ever had by default. Her story in Palau is incredible, she inspired hundreds of young girls over the world to go after their dreams and to never give up, she's the woman who ended up all alone as all her friends died around her and all she could do was to never give up…

The one reason why I think Steph falls short of being one of the most incredible characters on Survivor for me is that the heroism feels more hoisted upon her by circumstances than being something that's integral to Steph as a person. Steph herself doesn't bring much to the story other than being a competent enough performer to play the part. Steph doesn't shape the Ulong Survivor story as much as the Ulong Survivor story shapes Steph. Who is Stephenie LaGrossa as we've seen her in Palau is almost a hard question to answer without digressing into what happens to Stephenie LaGrossa in Palau. She's strong, independent, determined and doesn't give up. And I won't deny that she plays the part beuatifully - that brief moment after she beats Bobby Jon at firemaking and is, this time for sure, the sole survivor of Ulong, and realizes the implications of how hollow that crown really feels and is sent back to the Ulong beach to live alone is one of the strongest chills I ever got from any scene on Survivor and she sells being the Heroine every step of the way. They beat you over the head with the message a little too much but ultimately Palau Steph works fairly well as basically an Ellen Ripley kind of figure except if she gets killed by the alien at the end regardless.

/u/CSteino:

Steph’s arc in Palau is so magical and unique, and of course it will never be replicated. Almost never has the show made an underdog as great as her. She’s the perfect person to survive the Ulong slaughter and somehow lasts even a bit longer into the merge giving her even more time to be awesome. Definitely see why she’d be endgame.

/u/xerop681:

Stephenie is the greatest underdog in Survivor history, point blank. I mean, maybe there’s someone I am forgetting BUT I wanted something catchy to start this blurb with. Ulong is… not a compelling tribe, really. Like the main idea idea of the tribe is definitely interesting with how they lack any form of leadership and there are some great individual moments, but the overall narrative can be grueling - but the arc of Stephenie makes it pretty damn worth it. She’s got a level of intensity and desire to succeed that can’t be beat - which makes her being placed on the worst tribe in survivor history all the worse.

Post “merge” (Haha screw off with any of your “PaLaU dIDn’t HaVe A MerGe” comments) is particularly fantastic - her breakdown at the Janu tribal and her subsequently being saved is absolutely fantastic, and I really LOVE how much chaos she causes during her last stand at the final 7, even when it just ends in a 6-1. Overall Stephenie is a big part of why I love Palau so much and… I may even move her up after this rankdown? Who knows!

/u/JM1295:

What a ridiculously epic character and arc. This goes for a lot of Palau, but it almost feels scripted in what a phenomenal story Stephenie has her first go around. Her circumstances are so dire and gritty and you really connect with her pain and heartbreak and hope, it's unreal. Regardless of how we feel about her later incarnations, Stephenie in Palau is fantastic.

/u/GwenHarper:

Queenie Female Rupert. I kinda touched on her in my admittedly disappointing final writeup. Honestly, for me, she isn’t very fun to write about. I love her tho. Such a fun legend and if we already have three Palauans in here, we might as well have the tetrad. Also, this might be a hot take but I wish Steph 2.0 had made it to endgame. I love love love fallen angel storylines and that is literally survivor’s best, especially coming after the punch drunk heights of Palau.

/u/qngff:

Personal Endgame Ranking: 7

Personal Overall Ranking: 26

The classic tragic hero of Palau, Steph did a fantastic job in her roles on both Ulong and Koror. She was a shining light, really carried the emotional weight of Ulong’s failure, and her short, but impactful stay on Koror led to her being a Rupert level fan favorite for YEARS. Well-deserved.

/u/scorcherkennedy:

Stephenie LaGrossa (Palau, 7th place)

There's a lot of things in life that are chosen for you. You don't choose who your parents. You don't choose which part of the world you're born into. You don't choose what kind of upbringing you're born into, whether it's upper, middle, or lower class. You don't get to choose your first school. You don't get to choose your first few friends. There was a great documentary last year called Three Identical Strangers that centered around these three triplets who had been separated at birth for an experiment - the three of them were each placed with a different family, one affluent, one blue collar and one middle class. The point was to trace how these boys would be shaped by their different upbringings, their different parents, their different cultures. I thought about it recently while thinking about Palau and Stephenie in particular.

Because there's a moment in episode 1 where it looks like Stephenie, Tom and Ian are all gonna be on the same tribe. All 20 players are there on the beach, bonds are forming, and we hear how Tom, Ian, Katie, and Stephenie are gonna stick together. This of course DOES NOT HAPPEN. But it's interesting to think about that alternate reality where Ian picks Steph over Katie and lets say Jenn goes to Ulong in her place. How much changes? If anything, on paper, it would seem that Koror would strangle the life out of Ulong's eyes even faster. Steph and Jenn are also set up as a flipside of each other during the season. They face off constantly in challenges, Steph often gaining the upper hand. At the merge, Coby tries to sell Steph on the idea that Jenn is threatened by her. Jenn even tells us Stephenie is too dangerous to keep around. And Jenn ends up in the final four with those three people Steph was linked to on Day 1 - Tom, Ian, and Katie. It sets up that alternate path, that idea that on a different tribe Steph could've succeeded and been happy. But Survivor tribes, like families, aren't something one gets to choose.

The first time we meet Steph is when she jumps off the boat in the premiere with an "I'm outta here." It's a fantastic introduction and I think it epitomizes Steph's character as a whole - this is someone who's competitive, stubborn and feisty but despite her best efforts things will not go her way. On Day 2, she gets picked onto Ulong. I like how the first few episodes don't really make a huge deal out of Steph - they don't show their hand of how important she's going to be. However there are hints. Steph is the one who makes the push to vote out Jolanda, the reasoning being that Jolanda cost them the challenge with her leadership. Returning from tribal, she hails the move as a "great decision." Whether or not it was a good decision, Jolanda's absence creates a leadership vacuum that's never effectively filled. Later on, when top 100 character James Miller steps up as leader, Steph is quick to says she's happy he's leader even though he can be annoying. Of course, when James blows the next immunity challenge, Steph lays the loss at James's feet. Because Steph isn't a good loser - she tells us as much. And for all the beasting she does in challenges, she can't control the people around her and she can't shake the fatal flaw of her own brashness. She comes off like a rogue detective who's furious with her superior's incompetence but doesn't have the pull to actually change anything.

I think one of the most interesting things to me about the whole Ulong saga is that the show lets it happen in the first place. This is a show that literally can't go two episodes now without being like "WE ARE SWITCHING THINGS UP. HALF OF YOU ARE JOINING THE NEWLY FORMED NCIS: FIJI TRIBE AND THE OTHER HALF OF YOU ARE GOING TO JOCKSTRAP ISLAND WHERE YOU CAN BID ON BOSTON ROB'S HIGH SCHOOL JOCKSTRAPS." And yet somehow the producers sat still for eight episodes of Palau and were just like "You know, it would be interesting if we just let them all die." The bugaboo with Ulong in my opinion, due to the schoolyard pick em nature of its genesis, is that it's really missing a gravitational force who has the confidence and stature to command attention. Someone like Savage or Deena who can get people on the same page whether they agree with it or not. Ulong doesn't have that. James Miller is the right age but he's a slackjawed doofus. So by process of elimination, Steph and Bobby Jon end up having the most sway.

Palau does an interesting thing with Steph and Bobby Jon where there's very little sentimentality with their relationship (with one posthumous exception). They're comrades out of circumstance. Even when Bobby Jon is going to grab his torch after losing at fire, there's no hug, no bonding moment. Steph pats him on the shoulder and they exchange a few perfunctory platitudes. One gets the sense that the two stick together because they both believe the other sucks less than their other tribemates. Bobby Jon has all the power in those last few Ulong episodes. He signs the death warrants for both James and Ibrehem (one of Steph's smartest moments is when she plays off the idea that James voted for Bobby Jon at the Angie votes when in fact she did. She doesn't want to throw James under the bus but she knows she can't admit the truth to Bobby Jon). He and Steph are like two buddy cops who never become friends. He respects her - he says as much and notes that he saves Steph over Ibrehem specifically cause she's so competitive in challenges. But there's no fondness here and I think the dreary, inevitable, tone of these final few Ulong episodes is better for it.

And then Bobby Jon loses. Steph sits at tribal all alone, chin propped on her hand, and the focus isn't on what she's lost. It's what she has to leave tribal and go back to. I love the scenes of Steph alone at Ulong. They're among the saddest in Survivor history. The fears that follow Survivor players become all the more amplified. What if the fire goes out? What if I can't find food? What if somethings out here with me? There's a wonderful confessional where Steph ruefully reminisces about how Bobby Jon always made the fire and he taught her how to make fire only for her to beat him with that same skill. It feels very post apocalyptic - society's dead and all Steph has left are her fears, her memories, and her will to survive. It's the hardest thing a Survivor player has ever done. Steph struggles all day to find food. She's unsuccessful. And then she gives a confessional that I feel is the best example of why Survivor fans fell in love with her so hard:

"I’m done. Went fishing, no fish. Went clamming, no clams. Tried to do that bamboo thing, almost dislocated my shoulder. I don’t know what else to do. It’s tough. But if I win…(voice breaks) it’ll be worth it. That’s for damn sure. That would be awesome.”

Steph is determined not to quit. And when she gets the tree mail telling her to take what she needs and head to Koror, it's an amazing moment of catharsis for her. Watching her read that scroll and say "It's a merge...I'm gonna have friends" as tears stream down her face feels so visceral. It's an uplifting moment and it's so human to watch Steph rejoice over the simple fact that she'll have people to talk to and be around. Steph looks so genuinely happy and alive when she gets to Koror. And it all feels earned after seeing what she's gone through.

But it's Steph joining Koror is inevitably bittersweet. Despite those initial bonds with Tom and Ian, and Tom's promises to her that she has friends here, Steph sticks out like a sore thumb. She's an Ulong - the only Ulong. Jenn and Gregg don't want her around for long, they know the danger she presents. Steph survives for two episodes but both times it feels like a temporary stay of execution rather than Steph gaining any leverage. But we still get terrific moments like her fighting to save herself at the F8 tribal council, declaring that she'd kill to survive and that she has too much heart and too much will to leave while also making clear she doesn't want Janu to quit for her sake. And in her boot episode, despite her best efforts, Caryn sucks and the specter of the one Ulong surviving on Koror grows too imposing. Steph falls short, in keeping with her character, and her elimination sets the stage for the great Palau endgame.

I was gonna type up a meandering paragraph about Steph's journey but it didn't sound like me. Steph's a badass. I love how she gets put into the closest thing Survivor has to Mad Max or Alien and has to fight her way through it. I think those scenes of Steph on Ulong alone are some of the best in Survivor history and I'm not sure anyone could pull them off like she does. She's tough but she can also be incredibly human when the moment calls for it. Steph could've been on Koror but this story needed her more. You don't get to choose your Survivor storyline. It chooses you.

vulture_couture: 10

CSteino: 12

scorcherkennedy: 3

xerop681: 9

JM1295: 9

GwenHarper: 13

qngff: 7

Average Placement: 9.0

#11. Katie Gallagher

/u/vulture_couture:

Four Palau characters in endgame is just too many, I'm sorry. Why did I take those deals again?

Katie herself is ... probably the one character I would cut the most out of the Palau endgamers. But I do appreciate her. Her blunt, tart personality brings a lot to the season and some of the reactions to her making endgame have kind of brought me closer over to the Katie side of things. She shapes the endgame story as much as Tom or Ian do, she's just closer to the losing side of it despite making it all the way to the end. Her friendship slash showmance with Ian is complicated and the fallout of which is a huge part of what makes the Tom/Ian/Katie triangle so interesting by the end of Palau. Ultimately I don't see her as an inherently worse character than, say, Tom is - it's just quieter. To apply the most classic of possible classifications to the Koror endgame trio, Tom is the mother, Ian is the virgin and Katie's the crone. And the crone never gets enough credit.

/u/CSteino:

I already did a writeup on her so I’ll keep it brief. Fantastic FTC loser, some of the best relationships with her castmates on the season, especially Ian. Amazing confessionalist. Super funny. Great payoff for her arc at FTC. Not in my endgame but I don’t have a problem with her making it.

/u/scorcherkennedy:

good FTC loser who I like and am coming around on more and more. Is a key ingredient to the Palau endgame and rewatching some of Palau for the Steph writeup gave me more of an appreciation for her role in the season.

/u/xerop681:

Any person who says they love Palau but doesn’t love Katie - well, I don’t want to say they don’t love Palau because that’s very condescending, but they probably don’t love Palau as much as they think they do, because Katie is absolutely a crucial character to the seasons storyline.

Okay my blurbs are getting kind of long at this point so, let’s some it up as quickly as I can - “I would place Katie higher, but Caryn sucks.”

/u/GwenHarper:

Fun fact: I used to hate Katie, but now she is dangerously close to my own endgame and not just because we are facebook friends. As a relatable yet snarky meangirl, she just delivers everything you could hope for throughout Palau. Plus, she is one of the only comic relief characters to carry an emotionally loaded storyline and is all the better for it. You cannot have Tom or Ian be as good as they are without Katie.

/u/qngff:

Personal Endgame Ranking: 12

Personal Overall Ranking: 120

Caryn SUCKS

/u/JM1295:

There was a decent amount of objection to Katie making endgame, which I expected given her track record in previous rankdowns, but still don’t understand. While her snark is her most remembered character trait, Katie literally has so much going on in Palau and is such a driving force in a lot of the conflict and drama. She is the strongest anti-Tom voice in the postmerge and you really get a lot of her trying to oust Tom, which was very necessary for Palau. She has some of the most important relationships in the season and one of the most emotional relationships in Survivor history. She has a super rough ending in Palau when the jury absolutely torches her. Throughout all of this though, Katie is just so ridiculously entertaining, but so real as well. Getting Katie to endgame wasn’t a case of wanting to give someone new a chance, but legitimately thinking she deserves a spot here and I look forward to making the case for her!

Right off the bat, Katie’s main draw and appeal is her snark and just how insanely funny she is. We get great commentary very quick into Palau as Katie mocks Caryn’s meltdown against her and this is just the start. There’s the iconic “Caryn sucks”, mocking Bobby Jon during the puppet show and comparing him to Jesus Christ, her voting confessional for Willard, and most of all her trashing Janu. The Janu scene in particular is great, because Katie really is firing on all cylinders here. First, she mocks Janu’s facial expressions at tribal to Jenn and then later as Janu argues with Katie, Katie gives us this great confessional about Janu impersonating herself being impersonated. I also love how Katie justifies gossiping about Janu with “sorry, you were being creepy!” and gives such an insincere apology lmao.

It probably wouldn’t be a plus for most characters and on most seasons, but Katie manages to really excel by being one of the meanest characters up to this point in Survivor. She’s shown to be kind and very nice with people she’s aligned with and likes, but vicious to people she dislikes. I feel like for other snarky type characters they are highlighted a bit more playfully and in a comedic light, but Katie doesn’t get a lot of that. Her FTC arc (which I’ll discuss more later) is pretty blatant and obvious, but Katie always manages to make it work. Also, I wanted to highlight this but despite how disliked Katie was on the island and by the viewing audience, man she is much tamer compared to what we would later get from other villains. Her snarky and bitchy commentary is nothing compared to what we’ve gotten from people like Russell.

This all leads into my next point, which is Katie for all her snark and putdowns, never comes off like she’s trying to be the mean girl of the season or forced at all. You think of people who would come after her like a Corinne or Jenn Brown who really gave very lazy delivery and content with their snark or just seemed like they were trying too hard to be overly edgy and offensive for shock value. Also, even with her very blunt comments, Katie still comes like a real and complex person and not some caricature of an edgy, young female. Katie always come off authentic and that comes through in her confessionals as well. And speaking of confessionals, Katie is one of the best confessionalists the show has seen. In general, any time Katie is speaking, the delivery is just so punchy and animated in such a great way and Katie is just bursting with charisma. Like when she describes Ian’s reluctance to kill a sting ray (“I’m sorry man, sorry. I just gotta do this”) or mocking the way Caryn marched away after their fight. A personal favorite of mine is when Katie describes how the dynamics of Koror will begin to shift as Ulong is decimated from rawr (this happy Koror) to reaaaawr (everyone eating and turning on each other). Even just general commentary on game dynamics and strategy, Katie gives solid insight.

Now despite her eventual loss at FTC and really having no shot at beating anyone except like Caryn or Janu at FTC, Katie is a surprisingly very proactive player. This wouldn’t necessarily be what you expect out of someone from Katie’s arctype when you compare her to Courtney or Corinne or Jenn. Throughout the entirety of the postmerge, Katie is just constantly trying to find ways to take out Tom, which is very funny since Katie was painted as being with Tom and Ian so hard up to this point lol. Like she has a pretty hard switch against Tom once we get past the early merge votes.

Now I don’t want to rewrite the season into Katie being the only one gunning for Tom, but she’s definitely the most aggressive about it. After Janu’s quit, pretty much every round is Katie trying to figure out a way to vote off Tom and Tom getting the best of her. At the final 7, she tries getting the women together, but Caryn blabs to Tom. At the final 6, Ian and Tom really beat her to the punch and try to force a tie, after she had jumped ship with Gregg and Jenn. Even in the end stretch, she’s still scheming to get Tom booted with Jenn. It’s funny in retrospect that they ended up being the final 2. But for such a dominant performance on Palau, Tom by no means had an easy ride and Katie was his main adversary in consistently going after him.

I want to talk about the many different, fun, and important relationships Katie has on Palau. I touched on the Tom one pretty well in how much their back and forth fueled the postmerge strategy and dynamics. Still though, they have a nice established bond premerge and Katie poking fun at Tom being a lightweight in getting drunk so quickly at camp. I also think she really helps sell Tom’s turn to more outright deception and playing a little more meaner and like a villain. Like in the final 5 when Tom pretty much strongarms Katie against turning on him or himself or Ian will win every immunity and make sure to vote her off before FTC. To which Katie eloquently responds with “Tom kind of sucked today” lol <3. I don’t think we could get through a Katie writeup at all without mentioning her relationship with Ian, which really is where the crux of the Palau endgame drama comes from. We get a few cute scenes in the premerge with the two, but the real meat and bones of this relationship is in those last 3 episodes of Palau. Their completely emotional, raw, and vulnerable talk on the beach after Ian took Tom on reward and strongarmed Katie into the Gregg vote was phenomenal. I can’t think of another scene that displays the humanity and naked emotion that Survivor can stir in people. The tears and emotion would make you think you were walking in on a conversation of lifelong friends and it never feels fake or weird or anything, but so honest and so crushing. They seem to make up, but this goes back and forth until the finale. This relationship more than anything is really what drives the endgame of Palau. Ian generally has a lot of struggles playing such a devious and dirty game with people he became so close to, but Katie really was his tipping point. It’s easily the most important relationship of the season. Still, I want to get into a few other relationships Katie has on the season, which are very fun. Her feuds with Janu and Caryn are hilarious, particularly with Caryn. In most seasons, both Katie and Caryn have a good chance of being early boots but thank god we got to see their ongoing conflict go as far as the FTC. Whether that’s Caryn calling Katie a tart or Katie being bewildered by Caryn’s existence, their back and forth all season was so fun. Katie and Janu was a lot more one-sided, but I wanted to mention their relationship just for the way Katie slammed Janu’s torch down into the ocean during fallen comrades <3. Her relationship with Coby was interesting as well, to say the least. She was never shown to have much bad to say about Coby, but oh no Coby was infuriated at Katie’s presence in the game. It’s actually fantastic that Coby ends up being Katie’s only vote at FTC when you look back at his vicious comments against her alol.

I mentioned Katie’s FTC arc and storyline being present and apparent pretty early on and yeah, it’s kind of hard not to. It becomes more obvious where Katie’s story is headed when Koror begins winning by a ridiculous amount, because on most seasons Katie wouldn’t last too long. While she does make strong bonds with the right people, she’s really mean and rude to the outsiders of the tribe and anyone not in her inner circle and is pretty bad at challenges (see the second reward challenge where she can’t swing onto the platform lol). Throughout Palau, Katie gets almost no glowing praise from her fellow castaways. Like you get constant scenes of Katie being looked at super negatively by a lot of her cast. This includes being called lazy, tart, useless, and just being trashed for bringing nothing to the tribe. There’s this great scene where most of Koror is being super productive in getting firewood, catching food, tending to the fire, adding more to the shelter and Katie is just making crafts lol. It’s even better when Katie comments on Survivor being a lot easier than she thought it’d be and how great she’s doing <3.

Now I grant you that Katie doesn’t have the most electric or complex arc for a FTC loser like a Sugar or Tai, but it’s all very well done. Katie is presented as being a super abrasive and mean-spirited person who is disliked. The story is much more about Katie’s navigation to the FTC where she always shines through. She doesn’t cut this unbelievable swath like Sugar or Lil, but kind of the opposite. All her plans were thwarted, despite her best attempts. Even with saying all of this though, I don’t think Katie’s FTC gets mentioned enough for what a rough night she had. I get Ian really takes most of the shine in the finale and rightfully so, but Katie is wrecked terribly by the jury. The Palau finale really leaves no prisoners and everyone goes out pretty shattered, except for Tom.

But let’s dissect that FTC, no? I have to imagine Katie went in knowing she didn’t have a great shot against Tom, but she’s happy to have made it to the end and hey, she has most of her friends on the jury so it should be fun. You can even see this with Katie being very light-hearted with her opening statement and her initial reactions to Coby’s jury speech. That quickly goes away once Coby hints that he may vote for her, but it’s simply an anti-Tom vote and what a waste of a player she was. You can literally see the shift in Katie’s mindset when even her good friend Gregg trashes her as well for being worthless around camp and embarrassing in challenges. It was after Gregg that Katie looks checked out and instead of being hopeful, just wants to get this over with. She goes onto not answer Janu’s jury question, called out by Jenn for allowing herself to be disrespected, and ends things with Caryn by bluntly pointing out she’s on the jury because she didn’t make an alliance. It’s all really hard to watch and Katie’s entire demeanor has completely changed. With that said, that’s really the only way Katie’s arc could end. Its really the only justice for a character like Katie and even as a huge Katie fan, very necessary for her character.

Those were the main points I wanted to touch in regards to Katie, but some quick side notes. I didn’t really talk about it, but Katie is such a dynamite casting choice and would fit in almost any season. She seems like she’d even excel in modern Survivor and if anything was a tad bit too early for her time. Also, didn’t happen on Palau, but her Survivor Oz interview is one of my favorite Survivor interviews ever and is a complete goldmine!

Katie Gallagher is such a wildly entertaining, fun, and surprisingly layered character. Despite her snark being that main appeal, she has so much more going for her. She’s a very proactive player in a season that’s painted as a domination by one player. She has some of the most important relationships on the season and is the real catalyst for Palau getting quite as dark and brutal as it did, with her role in Ian’s breakdown. She’s insanely funny and charismatic in such a real way. And lastly, she gets her rightful FTC grilling to complete her story. I know there aren’t many anti-Katie voices in this community, but I hope I shifted at least a few minds that Katie isn’t endgame material or even close. Here’s to her at least escaping the bottom 3!

vulture_couture: 11

CSteino: 11

scorcherkennedy: 11

xerop681: 7

JM1295: 5

GwenHarper: 11

qngff: 12

Average Placement: 9.714285714

#12: Tina Wesson 1.0

/u/vulture_couture:

It's almost odd for me to realize that I think The Australian Outback, a season characterized mostly for its all too accurate representation of what conservative America looks like with its strong, evangelical Traditional Patriarchal Structure bent and general hatred of all women who step out of the pre-designed line, has two endgame worthy characters. And yet I do.

What makes Tina work is in a large part what makes a lot of Australian Outback a horrible season channeling so much negative spiritual energy Marianne Williamson shudders just thinking about it. Tina takes that environment and skillfully exploits it for their own gain. She manages to be a woman that effectively wields all the power on a season that devalues anything that's not the All-American Boy idealized version of masculinity or the sweet, feminine nurturing energy that's designed to take the back seat to the masculine energy this season prioritizes at every turn. One side of this coin is a social structure that's horrible to watch as it devours all outliers. The other side is getting to watch and admire the inconspicuous yet headstrong small woman who's secretly got all the ferocity and heart in the world gain an almost superpower-like amount of social capital and make the patriarchy work for her. Tina Wesson is a very Handmaiden's Tale sort of character and yet she's fascinating and I think one of the most interesting winners this show has ever had.

/u/CSteino:

I love Tina. She’s a great winner and, on paper in particular, she’s got one of the most interesting winner stories and portrayals the show has had. In practice, I don’t think she’s really handled all that amazingly and the hiding of her story, while a fun tidbit, doesn’t really make for the best character to me. I don’t have her endgame and don’t really see the argument for it either, but I think there’s a better argument for her rather than Savage. I’m giving Tina #14 though solely because she is lower in my rankings and I just went by my rankings for this.

/u/scorcherkennedy:

one of the shows most memorable winners whose demeanor and style was likely a needed respite after Hatch. Don't think she deserves to be here since so much of her win happens offscreen but I'm excited for the writeup

/u/xerop681:

Tina is sweet. She’s nice. Probably one of the nicest and most kindhearted people to ever play survivor. But also in Australia she can be a stone cold assassin while playing the role of the nice, kindhearted mom - which makes for a pretty interesting winner, especially considering the placement of Australia in the series.

After the evil, scheming, conniving, ALLIANCE MAKER Richard Hatch won Borneo, Survivor needed to show that a hero could win the game/somebody could win by playing “honourably”. Enter Tina, who, yes is definitely a heroic player… but did she really play that different from Richard Hatch? She flips on an alliance early on, plays kind of lie an assassin during the post-merge by flipping on Jerri while setting her up to be in final 3… I mean, she plays more brutal than Hatch if anything - all he did was make a 4 person alliance and bring it home. But by putting up the front of a smile-y face along with the “kind, caring mother” approach I mentioned, she ends up looking like a big ol’ hero (plus a bit of editing help). The meta context of Australia and them needing her to be a heroic/honorable winner when she… really isn’t all that, is interesting, it’s like production trying to hide that Survivor is a game of deception under the front at “look at these good people win!”

That being said, while Tina is very interesting for meta/cultural reasons, to me her content doesn’t fill that gap that makes for an endgamer - I have her just outside my top 50.

/u/JM1295:

Yeah, Tina is the only endgamer here I don't even have top 200. I'm quite curious to hear the case for her being endgame worthy, but it just isn't there for me. Her edit and story is decent, but it feels so watered down and safe in a lot of aspects. We get little inklings of the real Tina through her subtle gameplay that can't be ignored or her answer to Jerri's jury question lmao, but it doesn't land enough to make for a great character. She actively contributes to the boring post-Jerri portion of Australia and more often than not, is just passively there as a character. There's a lot of behind the scenes stuff that's cool, but that did not make the show and shouldn't really be taken into account.

/u/GwenHarper:

I have believed for a long time that there are two survivors who would make literally any season better: JT and Tina. As a figure in survivor, she is unprecedented. A mother with the sharpness of a dagger’s edge who might have the most killer instinct I have ever seen. There have been doubts as to whether or not Tina is worth of the endgame, but I wholeheartedly support it. For as much as I despise Australia as a season, I fucking love Tina and Jerri and Colby (and Mad Dog). Tina’s story is all about how women are able to find power and harness it, which is something rarely ever told. That Tina gets to be the hero at the same time, despite AO being a backwards ass “The Devil Wears Prada” parody, makes me so happy and glad she made endgame.

/u/qngff ("Temporary" placeholder):

Hello everyone! Q here! I’m really sorry to not have my Tina writeup done. Literally the day before my classes started for the semester, my laptop croaked and I had to get a new one. I’d be done already if that hadn’t happened. I’ll get it done before endgame finishes. Sorry about that. I do have my laptop now, so work will begin as soon as possible.

vulture_couture: 5

CSteino: 14

scorcherkennedy: 14

xerop681: 13

JM1295: 14

GwenHarper: 7

qngff: 2

Average Placement: 9.857142857

#13: Russell Swan 2.0

/u/vulture_couture:

If we were to do a purely numerical ranking, Swan 2.0 would probably be my #14 for this endgame before this started. However, the closer we approached to endgame, the more I felt like Swan 2.0 at the very least deserves more consideration as an endgame character than Andrew Savage does, therefore I'm not putting him there. You can really think about Russell Swan's journey through Survivor: Philippines two ways - one of them is an outside perspective where he's just this annoying guy who thinks he deserves to be the leader at any cost and will mold everything to fit that idea even if it's directly detrimental to everyone around him. The other is a perspective from inside Swan's head and I think that one is just fundamentally so much more interesting.

In therapy, one of the bigger lessons I was forced to learn - and that I'm still struggling with - is that you can't really apply higher standards to yourself than you would to anybody else. If anyone else made a mistake, you would be forgiving of it, if anyone else had imperfections, you would understand them and not expect them to be a perfect person always. However, for a lot of people it's immensely difficult to apply that same standard to themselves and Swan is an extreme version of that. Swan is either God's chosen soldier whose purpose in life is to achieve perfection and shun failure - or he's nothing. So when things just don't seem to go his way on Survivor ever, when his body fails him and ends his journey prematurely the first time and then his mind fails him and lets him go out the expected route the second time around, it gains a tragic dimension because to Swan, that failure is existential and not circumstantial. Where other people try and don't succeed, they can dust themselves off and try again - where Swan tries and doesn't succeed, he just lost his titanic quest to dethrone God himself and take over heaven.

So yes, while I don't derive enough joy from Swan's journey to even have him top 100 really, I'm kind of glad that he did end up making endgame just this once. His is ultimately a minor story but if you look closely within its confines it's got the dimensions of a Titan.

/u/scorcherkennedy:

Best premerger ever. Devastating, tragic, storyline that you feel even though he's only around for four episodes. But he packs so many vivid, memorable moments into those four episodes from darkly comedic rants (I'm talking to God, Lord -- I mean, Jeff) to monologues dripping with pathos (the scene where he discusses his childhood with Denise). Russell's one of the shows best portrayals of dealing with failure and the tolls it takes. The fact that the failure eventually envelops him only makes him better.

/u/xerop681:

“A pre-merger doesn’t deserve endgame”, they say. “How can someone who’s only in 4 episodes measure up to someone in a whole season?”, they say. But I say fuck the haters, Russell Swan 2.0 deserves endgame. Few characters reach highs over an entire season that Russell does during just 4 episodes in Philippines - he has one of the most emotional, tragic, and gripping stories that has ever been told on Survivor.

Swan’s a hypocrite, self-absorbed, he fails as a leader... the edit completely embraces all of his flaws and leaves them right out in the open to build up his character. Hell, he’s such a mess he can’t even win a challenge for his tribe tribe… despite, to quote Malcolm, being “built like a gazelle.”

I think the main emotion of Swan’s arc in Philippines is built on his previous iteration in Samoa. After tragically being taken out, he wants so badly to do bad - no, not to win - but just to make the merge. And he fails… that is some pretty tragic stuff, and when you consider how Russell is watching himself fail at reaching his (probably simple) goal, even though he should be able to get there and is more than accomplished in real life, I think some of the actions that people dock him for, like berating Angie at the 3rd tribal and making her cry, make a little more sense. He wants to succeed so badly - so so so very bad, but in the end, he fails, ad he really has no one to blame but himself. There’s no silver lining to Russell’s story in Samoa, no sort of positive way to spin it, simply tragic on a level that few other survivor characters have reached. A heartbreaking tale on the expectations we set for ourselves and what happens when we fail to meet them, i’m sure everyone can relate to that.

So, I go back to my early point - who cares if Swan’s a pre-merger? He’s that good, he deserves to be here more than… almost half the endgame, to be honest.

/u/JM1295:

A character I definitely wouldn't have endgame, but I'm super stoked to see that he did. Swan packs more of a gut punch with his story and elicits so much emotion in 4 episodes that most characters cant do with a season's worth of content. The heart and soul of Matsing, he really is the main force pushing the very dramatic, brutal, and harsh beginning portion of Philippines.

/u/GwenHarper:

“Should a premerger make endgame?” has been a question of fierce discussion for a long time, and I guess this time we have settled the question. While I personally don’t think Swan meets the criteria, it has nothing to do with the length of his time on survivor. It is hard to deny that he has one of the tightest, emotionally impacting storylines in survivor. If you took all of Ian Rosenberger and compressed him into four episodes, then you would get Russ Swan, so he definitely has a case to be here. If any premerger deserves it, its him.

/u/qngff:

Personal Endgame Ranking: 14

Personal Overall Ranking: 163

Russell Swan 2.0 has no business being in endgame and made it on the backs of deals. Easily the most egregious inclusion in my opinion. He’s fine, but his story is very short, leans too heavily on Samoa to stand well on its own, and Swan becomes pretty unlikable in his short stay in the Philippines. I enjoy it on principle of the Swan story, but it’s just not something that can stack up among legends. I do love his confessional about the idol though. Full thoughts on him are in my idoled writeup.

/u/CSteino:

Before I say anything about one of my favorite characters ever and one of the most important characters in the history of the show (in my eyes), I just wanna thank Savage for being here, so that having a premerger in endgame wasn’t the most controversial thing about this endgame.

But in all seriousness, I do know that I have an uphill battle in terms of convincing people that a premerger deserves endgame. Personally, I don’t agree with the stigma that premergers are inherently at a disadvantage compared to people who last until the postmerge and beyond. For me, I’ve never minded how long someone lasts or anything like that - if a story is endgame-level to me, it’s an endgame-worthy story. Number of episodes lasted and stuff like that isn’t super important to me personally. And though I understand if someone wants to hold that against someone like Russ and keep him out of endgame that’s perfectly valid, but to me I’m not gonna look at it in that same way.

Of course, I don’t hold the opinion that every single good premerger can stack up with the best of the best when it comes to characters, specifically postmergers. I only have three postmergers in my Top 50 overall, and those three are people who, in my eyes, truly earn it during their stint and become some of the best characters ever. However, I am of the mind that if a premerger is truly a transcendent character, they can absolutely stack up with every other character and can either be an endgamer or be in consideration for endgame.

Even though I “only” have Russ at #8 in my overall rankings, he’s a character that means so much to me in terms of my Survivor watching experience. If I was just putting characters in order of how much they mean to me, it would be Sean Rector #1, Russ #2, Natalie Cole #3. He’s way up there for me and one of my biggest goals in this rankdown was to finally get him into endgame after he was tragically just short last time. Although with Russ’ story, maybe a tragic downfall is more fitting.

I will say before I dive into Russ’ character here, that as much as I’d like to keep this writeup purely about Russell during Philippines and why I think he’s more than worthy of being an endgamer just with those 4 episodes, the context for how he ends up on the season is extremely important as well. So I’m going to talk for a bit about that context and then leave the rest about just Philippines since I want it to be clear that he’s making it here on his own merit and not as a quasi-multi seasonal arc type deal.

Philippines was actually the first season I ever watched live, but I picked up the season during, if I’m remembering correctly, Episode 6. So when I was watching the season I had missed the entirety of the Matsing arc and I didn’t watch the season again until I had watched most of the other seasons. I knew Russell was on the season after looking into the show and season after watching that one episode, but I had missed all of his time on the show. I did end up watching Samoa before I watched Philippines again and I was very thankful to have that context for why Russell was brought back after Samoa.

In Samoa, Russell is an extremely unique and complex character who has maybe the saddest and scariest exit ever. He’s the alpha of his tribe, the leader of the Galu group who absolutely steamrolls Foa Foa throughout the entire premerge. From the outside looking in, Russell very well might seem completely bulletproof. His tribe hoisted him into the leader position, he’s killing it at challenges, and he’s a very likable guy who never gives up. But when we see the dynamics of Galu, it’s clear just how incorrect that is, due to Russell’s own flaws. He is stubborn and headstrong to a fault and he continually rubs his tribe the wrong way, putting himself in a position where he might go far sooner than he expects. But despite that, he is still the heart and soul of Galu and they all rally around him and follow his lead.

But when he has his medical emergency and is pulled from the game, that’s all pulled out faster than you could blink. The evac is scary and gut-wrenching but also beautifully done in a way very few scenes can match, but I’ve already talked about that in the Russell 1.0 writeup. The point is that Russell is tragically cut short of the merge, and Probst puts best. That Russell was the leader of a dominating tribe and he wasn’t going anywhere for awhile, but he had to be pulled for his own health. The glue is gone and you could very well argue that Russell’s departure is a substantial reason as to why Galu implodes immediately at the merge, because they had lost their heart.

So of course after feeling like his experience was cut way too short his first time, Russell comes into Philippines looking for redemption and to right the perceived wrongs from his time on the last season. I’m sure going into it Russell agonized over how he could improve and though he was the heart of his tribe, he still rubbed people the wrong way and that was something he clearly wanted to fix. And what makes that dynamic so interesting right off the bat and as we watch him progress through the season is that even though this is a different Russ than the one we watched in Samoa, having already played before and being a few years older and a few years wiser, he is still very much the exact same Russ, which we’ll see as we dive deeper.

What immediately draws you, or at least me, to Russ is just how enthralling and compelling it is to see him do just about anything. He’s really one of the best casting choices the show has ever made, he’s so intense in everything he does whether that’s his competitive nature, his faith, his relationships with people, or just the way he talks. He is such an engaging narrator and speaker that everything he does keeps me glued to the screen so that I can watch whatever he’s doing or saying at that moment. He pours absolutely everything into the game and that makes his arc so much more personal and so much more compelling to watch.

In Episode 1, Russ has come in looking to be the exact opposite of what he was in Samoa. He wants nothing to do with the mantle of being “the leader”. He knows that taking that role is not going to help him improve his game from his first time. Anyone who takes that role is a dummy, Russell tells us. Russell knows that “some idiot” will start take the mantle and be marked for execution soon enough. If I didn’t know any better, I’d maybe even throw out that Russell is acting like a wimpy little non-leader. Again, Russell does not want to be the leader. They really hammer it home because it’s such an important first step to the overarching theme that Russell’s arc has.

So Russell is denouncing any inkling of a mention or thought that he could be the leader. And at first, it even seems to work. Matsing doesn’t look hapless right off the bat. Russell seems to be decently liked by his tribe, Malcolm is the one making fire and getting that done, and Russell is playing patiently while Zane runs up and down the beach making alliances with everyone. He very well could integrate himself well here and really blend in. But… Russell can’t leave well enough alone. He never can. In the same episode that he calls anyone who would think about being the leader a “dummy” and “some idiot”, Russell finds himself taking charge, barking out orders, and not taking inputs from the rest of his tribe. It’s shocking to watch how quick it shifts from Russell being proactive about trying to improve and then becoming reactive and taking the leader mantle right after that even though he didn’t need to.

Old habits die hard, and that idea continues to be present through Russell’s story from here until the end of his run. In the immunity challenge, he barks out orders and goes into his way or the highway mode. Well in response to this, Matsing gets smoked. And instead of the focus being on the people like Zane who performed terribly in the challenge, the focus is instead on Russell, because he refused to listen to anyone but himself.

And honestly that should be it for Russell. Like at this point he’s made the exact same mistakes he made last time, he can’t overcome his own flaws. He should be the first boot, but he’s saved by Zane doing Zane things and going home because, like the mastermind he is, he asked to get voted out in order to get them to keep him.

So after that tribal, I have to assume Russell knows he’s fucked up in some way, considering Zane’s vote for him. That wouldn’t happen unless his name had been thrown out, considering Zane and Russell had a final two deal together. At this point though, he’s in a way already too far gone. He’s not gone into psycho mode or anything, but by this point Russell has already taken up that leader mantle and after one of the first challenge losses he’s had in his Survivor career, he wants to get his tribe back on track.

Russell is someone who clearly has a need for control and success in his day to day life. He talks about it later on and we see it in some of his scenes as well, and you can even really see it in his physical figure with how ripped he is, that he’s someone who pushes himself to his limits and never gives less than that in anything. This desire for control continues as the game progresses as he continues to dig himself into a hole that quite quickly becomes inescapable. We see him want to keep Roxy coming up later this episode because he trusts her when he is and probably is aware he’s already on thin ice, and seemingly only jumps on board at the last minute to be in the numbers.

He has his first, though less memorable, outburst at a challenge during this episode as well. Again, Russell is someone who lives expecting nothing but perfection from himself, and he has these realistically impossible to meet expectations for himself but also those around him, and that idea really comes into light here after they lose. Russell tells his tribe they need to go hard or go home. He says he can’t take it and he can’t do this. He says the other tribes shouldn’t be able to beat them even though they’ve been handily beaten twice now. He says his tribemates haven’t decided that they’re unbeatable and that they can do this. He flat out tells them they need to get their heads out of their butts. It’s a very intense moment and another flash of this idea that Russell can’t cope with failure.

Of course, this speech is highly aggressive and intense in tone and comes off terribly because Russell is so miffed by them losing again. But it’s quite clear that Russ isn’t trying to tell his tribe off or demean them with this. In fact, it’s the exact opposite. Russell is very clearly trying to motivate his tribe to get them to believe in themselves so that they can win. But even though he holds himself to this ridiculously high standard and that kind of motivation would work for himself, what he can’t understand and realize is that not everyone is him. Not everyone is so intense, so motivated, so competitive like he is and he doesn’t get that they might not respond well to this kind of encouragement, which they really don’t. It’s more highlighting how flawed Russell is, but also building up that he has really nothing but good intentions, just gone about the right way.

Obviously though, this also comes from a place of egotism from Russ, which is more of that development into him as a flawed character. Russ is just miffed at the fact that his tribe has lost again, and he even says he can’t take it and can’t do this. While he’s upset his team lost and tries to motivate them and build them up, it’s also clear with quotes like those that Russell is also unable to comprehend how this is happening to his tribe. This again gets explored more during his Episode 4 challenge moment in a different light, but here it’s made ever more obvious that Russell is just in disbelief that a team with him on it can’t win. I think this ends up being a very big moment in Russ’ story, since it’s the first point where the idea of him being this team-first player dies. He wants the best from his tribe of course, but he also is entirely focused on his own performance and can’t understand why the rest of his tribe can’t meet those expectations has.

So after Roxy goes, we get to Episode 3 and I think this is where Russell reaches the turn of his arc. Up until this point Russell was in this mode where he was trying to be the leader and trying to be a motivator, but for these last couple episodes of his arc he becomes much more introspective and trying to understand what this all means for and about him. Like I said, if the episode 2 challenge feels like that first moment where “Russell the team player” dies, these last two episodes absolutely confirm it. It’s not about motivating his team to get a win anymore, it’s about figuring out why he’s in this situation, and that sparks the exploration into Russell’s deeply devout faith we get in these last episodes of his.

Religion on Survivor has always been a divisive topic and you really see that divide when discussion seasons like South Pacific, which focuses heavily on religious themes throughout. I’ve always been of the mind that when it’s explored in a way that is compelling and interesting, there really are few topics that are as gripping as religion. Russell is one of those examples where watching him struggle with his faith and watching how intensely devout he is as a person is extremely captivating from a character perspective.

During this episode we really get a dive into Russell’s attitude about the game at this point and how he’s bringing God with him into the game. While Malcolm and Denise try to figure out which way they need to vote, with Angie coming in every once in a while, Russell is instead shown off on his own, staring out at the sunset or walking up and down the beach and praying to God to give him strength and wisdom. He says a quote that always sends chills up my spine with just how pessimistic and lost he sounds while saying it, “What is it about this game that fights me so much?”, because at this point we see just how broken Russell is. Gone is the strong, outspoken leader who always spoke up and wanted to succeed more than anything else. What he is at this point is a lost soul who can’t understand why he’s being put through hell.

It’s beautifully tragic in an extremely dark way, making it one of my favorite Russell scenes. The Matsing Arc is already very dark but I don’t think it ever gets as dark as it does with Russell specifically. Watching someone who was so strong in his faith reach the point where he is essentially questioning why God has done this to him is absolutely chilling, yet so compelling.

Moving forward Matsing loses the challenge again, shockingly, and it looks as though it may be the end of the line for Russell once again. Malcolm and Denise have been a tight duo since the beginning, and Malcolm and Angie are in their own little flirtmance. Heading to tribal it’s clear Russell’s arc has reached its lowest point so far, and it very well may be the end for him.

At tribal, Russ and Angie are both fighting to ensure their lives in the game and this is where Russell reaches his lowest in terms of the way he treats people. Angie and him are trying to basically show Malcolm and Denise that they have more to give, and when Angie says she thinks she has more to give than Russell, Russell says that Angie doesn’t have 30 more days in her, straight-up. He continues and even says that he was willing to die for Survivor the last time he played, before asking her if she’s willing to do the same, calling her a “little girl” to top it off.

This is probably the most condescending comment Russ could have made, and it’s very dismissive. He puts her down in a way that is quite rude and even though his point about being willing to die for the game is correct, he takes it a step too far. It’s another example of Russ not being able to overcome his own flaws and his ego, and he goes too far because of those flaws. And while it is a bad comment, it still serves the purpose to show his flaws and show just how he continues to fail in every aspect.

But I think the most telling part of all of this tribal for Russ is the outcome. Yes he stays and yes Malcolm and Denise pick him over Angie. But none of his fighting, none of his arguing, none of his skills or physical attributes or anything are the reason he stays. Russell has no real reason why he was chosen to stay other than that Malcolm and Denise thought Angie would be harder to drag through than Russ. That’s really the only reason. And it’s a far cry from the Russ we watched at the start, being chosen to be dragged through rather than being in control.

So finally we get into Russell’s final episode, and I think this is where he has the most compelling content, maybe ever in Survivor. It’s his Swan song (wink wink) and the show really leans into that to close off his magnificent arc. Create a Little Chaos is one of the best Survivor episodes ever, and Russell is the biggest reason why.

The episode starts with the depressed Matsing tribe, which isn’t new, but now Russell has some new life after he was spared at the last tribal. He says the Matsing 3 are going to mount the greatest comeback ever seen, which honestly is probably his most effective plan he makes during the season. It’s such a bleak atmosphere on Matsing this episode, even more than usual, and Malcolm comments on just how unaware Russell is about how he comes across. Everything about their content for 99% of this episode is extremely depressing, and it sets the mood so well.

The only time we really get a break from that depressing mood on Matsing is Russell’s search for the idol, which is an extremely funny scene that I’m sure everyone knows. It’s great but I don’t really have much to say about it in this writeup, so I’ll just give it a mention as a fantastic scene and a great reprieve from the utterly demoralized mood on Matsing.

Then we get to one of the most famous immunity challenges in Survivor history, Swing Break. Just to point out, production knew this challenge would be so good that they actually staged the end of the challenge in order to get a more suspenseful outcome, which makes it so much better. Matsing are all just exhausted, but they fight their ass off for the entire challenge, and they even have a lead for the first time for pretty much all season. Malcolm pushes himself to the brink, Russell collapses as Malcolm starts smashing the pots, and Denise is hunched over just gassed. And it comes down to the last pot for both them and they both swing and Kalabaw misses and Matsing misses and Kalabaw misses again… but then it goes slow-mo and the pot gets smashed on the way back, and Matsing loses again.

In that moment all the hope dies. There was no way not to be rooting for Matsing in that challenge, to see them succeed just once, and they get so close, and like a gut punch all that hope gets knocked out of you. Everyone is dejected and Matsing has to be even worse. This leads to Russell’s 2nd outburst at the challenge, and it’s a very powerful moment.

He smashes the pot Matsing had left while outcrying it as the same old crap. He tells God he doesn’t know what happened. He says he doesn’t know what’s happening when he gave him another opportunity, and that God has to help him understand it. He talks to Lord, I mean Jeff (another good moment of unintentional comedy), and has a very poignant conversation with Jeff that really illuminates who Russell is as a person and how impossible it is for him to be that person.

The conversation is very gripping on both ends and even though it seems as though maybe Jeff is shooting Russell down it really isn’t that way, but instead trying to help him realize that he can’t be this superhero he expects out of himself.

Russ: “For me this isn’t supposed to happen.”

Jeff: “Russell, with all do respect, you sometimes talk like you’re a superhero. Like, Superman’s never supposed to fail. You’re just a guy”.

Russ: “I’m a guy who was formed by God’s hands, a perfect creature. And as far as I’m concerned that’s how I’m supposed to live my life. In excellence. And everything I’m supposed to do is supposed to be excellent.”

Jeff: “And that means never failing?”

Russ: “Right. Right. Absolutely.”

Jeff: “Russell, not everyone can succeed at everything. In a competition someone, by design, will fail, will lose.”

Russ: “It pisses me off, but at the same time, logically, I understand.”

This interaction, especially from Russ, is so raw and real and shows just who he is as a person, and that’s someone who is flawed, no matter how he views himself. Watching him get his perspective challenged on it adds another layer as he explains what he expects from himself and how he wants nothing less from excellence from himself. He can’t be that, that’s not realistic, and seeing him fight for that ideal even as they continue to lose is extremely compelling to watch and makes his rougher around the edges parts of his character more understandable, because of how much he demands from himself.

But once again Matsing does still have to go to tribal, and at this point Malcolm and Denise know that Russell needs to go. They just need to convince him he’s actually in the middle just in case he has an idol, so that he doesn’t play it. So they both come up to him and try to get him to vote the other off, and Russell does buy it.

His conversation with Denise about it is again such a fantastic scene and probably the best Russell moment. He opens up to her about how he doesn’t go into anything expecting less than the best, and losing pisses him off. He says he gets over it but it’s how he’s always been and that he doesn’t understand how other people can handle it. More of this idea that Russell just can’t see that others don’t hold themselves to the same high standards as him. Then he talks about how he got beat up at a young age when Denise inquires if it’s always been that way for him. He’d go to school for a long time after that scared, because he’d see them and they’d tease him. But finally he catches one of them, and punches them, and the kid starts crying. And he talks about how that and not being in fear anymore was the point where he hit the point where he wasn’t going to cower in the face of anything.

Of course this moment is extremely emotional and touching overall, and while it showcases just how good Denise is as a player, it also showcases the real motivations behind Russ and why he is who he is. He’s been through so much, whether it be in his Survivor experience, his experience in his faith, or even his experience as a child getting beat up by bullies, and he’s still overcome all of them. He doesn’t need to fear anything anymore and that means he’s going to hold himself to a seriously high standard where he does not want to deal with failure, because he’s already overcome it in so many other areas. It really puts all of his actions into perspective and cements him as this really beautifully tragic and flawed hero who loses because of his own mistakes and has those flaws and shortcomings highlight, but you still root for them regardless.

And of course tribal comes around and Russ finds out he was duped and he’s just devastated. He’s sent home even earlier than he was the first time and you see just how dejected he is. It’s brutal and sad but such a perfectly tragic end to his character, and the perfect way to end off the Matsing arc.

He’s one of the best tragic heroes in really any medium I’ve ever seen, and that is saying a lot. He’s got pretty much the perfect arc for it, his arc feels like it was written specifically for this purpose when, no, it was made out of events that really happened. One of the ways it succeeds so well is how well it fits into classic storytelling ideas. One of the best ways to write a character well is to have them have a very clear overarching theme to their character and to take them out as their arc hits their highest or lowest point so it has the most impact, and Russ’ does that perfectly.

He reminds me of Nedd Stark from Game of Thrones in a lot of ways, which is a comparison I’ve made in the past. Nedd’s arc is pretty clear from the start that he is a man of honor and will always do the honorable thing even if it gets him killed. He shows this the most from when Robert dies until his death, where he consistently tries to be honorable in a world where honor gets you killed. He’s arrested and put to trial, and he sacrifices his own honor to say Joffrey is the king where he is not, all in order to save his children. However, he does this and still is beheaded anyway, ending his arc tragically as he hits rock bottom.

Russ’ overarching theme to his arc is not being to overcome his own flaws, and those flaws becoming his downfall. Russell is so intense and devout and competitive and those traits end up digging him deeper and deeper into this hole until he’s suddenly hit the point where there is no recovering and his fate is sealed. In episode 4 he hits rock bottom, with his ideals being broken and his faith being shattered in multiple ways as he can’t understand why God is putting him through this, and he opens up to Denise about his past and feels, for the first time, that he’s actually safe at a tribal. But then after escaping the noose for 3 tribals, his time comes and he leaves as his arc hits its strongest beats, which makes it so meaningful and strong.

The Matsing Arc as a whole is one of the best arcs ever produced by Survivor, a beautiful tale of tragedy and loss and it’s main character is Russ. Russell is the heart and soul of the Matsing arc, and he is the best part of it by far. Watching his arc progress episode by episode is some of the most compelling stuff the show has ever made and I think it makes him a worthy endgamer and one of the best characters ever.

I’ll end off, fittingly, the final words Russell ever said on Survivor, because I feel like it is a great bookend to his arc:

“It’s obvious me and Survivor don’t get along. So I think I’m done with this.”

vulture_couture: 13

CSteino: 4

scorcherkennedy: 8

xerop681: 8

JM1295: 11

GwenHarper: 12

qngff: 14

Average Placement: 10.0

#14. Andrew Savage 2.0

/u/vulture_couture:

Savage is kind of a curious case for me. On the one hand yes, he's the one character in Cambodia whose mindset goes so opposite to what Cambodia is known to represent now and I guess that's commendable, on the other hand is what Savage brings to the table good? The thing about Savage for me is that for various mostly personal reasons his personality is the exact type of personality that's the MOST grating to me, he's like the traditional masc scill enforcing sports coach slash well meaning-yet-pushy father figure that makes my hair stand up. Andrew Savage as a Survivor character is like the most archetypal alpha leader figure possible yet pushed so far over the top he ironically becomes a great comedy figure. And on that level I really do like Savage 2.0. He's a pretty effective villain and an ironic alpha hero of Survivor nerds on the internet at the same time and that is good and valid. I would have him in top 100 myself, probably! However, the late game push to get Savage endgame really made me realize just how much I resent that idea. All respect to scorcher who worked hard on this but, like... Andrew Savage 2.0 being crowned one of the all-time best Survivor characters kind of repels me. Like, when that happened it was like all the ironic layers of Savage were stripped away for me and I got left by the baseline Savage personality which I never liked. And for that reason he's my clear choice for #14 in this endgame even though I would probably have had him at least over one other person previously. Also to clarify I don't hate Savage as a person, it's just ... the idea of what he represents? I don't really agree with Oedipus on the whole fucking your mom thing but I feel the whole "kill the father figures" vibe and for that reason I really, really hope Savage turns out to be the #14 of this endgame.

extremely Abi voice at least he made it to endgame, though!

/u/CSteino:

I already made my writeup on Savage so I don’t have much else to add. I will say for as much shit as he’s gotten for making it here, he’s not someone I think is the worst endgamer a rankdown has ever had. He’s one of the best confessionalists probably ever, he’s got a great arc on a season that fails at most arcs, and I really like all of his content. That being said I don’t think he’s endgame and I don’t really see how he could be Top 14, as much as I like him.

/u/xerop681:

Savage 2.0 is a really really really really good comedic character, like really good. Coming into the season, there’s this kind of thought that, hey MAYBE Savage has changed from Pearl Islands. Maybe he’s learned to be humble and has developed into a good guy… but naturally, he immediately throws all that out the window the moment he lands on the island. Personally as far as Savage iterations go, I think that Savage 1.0 has a better told and more interesting story, however Savage 2.0 is by far the funniest of the two. The first thing Savage does at the start of Cambodia is brag about how he has an absolutely perfect life, the only regret he has in the back of his head being Survivor: Pearl Islands - I’ve always loved it as an opening confessional because it’s an opening to us, the viewers, for how hilariously cocky Savage still is by letting him brag about how good his life is, while also perfectly fitting into the theme so… well done editors! There’s also the scene where Savage tells the story about his wife to his fellow tribe mates, one of the most bizarre, anticlimactic, but at the same time hilarious scenes the show has ever had. Some other good Savage moments are obviously the “Wimpy Little Non-Leaders” where Savage basically destroys any ounce of respect he would have from the audience up until that point, him dressing up like a teenager on the jury, and of course his boot… “at least you made the jury!”

That being said, I am utterly repulsed at the idea of Savage 2.0 being an endgamer. Yes, Savage 2.0 is funny… but that’s it! Placing someone in endgame for humor alone is definitely valid, but for me, they also need to have some sort of well told coherent story… and, well Savage is on Cambodia, so obviously he doesn’t have one of those really (Even if his plot is arguably the best). He’s just funny. And that’s fine for top 50 -- maybe even top 30 -- but it should put him nowhere near endgame, and it’s absolutely terrible that i’m writing about him right now over Twila, both versions of Sandra, Richard Hatch, Dreamz, Lex, Chrissy Hofbeck, Jon Misch, the list of people that would have been better fits for endgame than Savage goes on and on and on. I’m ranking him last, not because he’s my #14 of everyone left but just based on the principal of “”everyone else being in endgame makes much more sense than Savage.” I love Savage 2.0, but no, he does not deserve to be here for simply being a good comedic character.

/u/JM1295:

Lol what? I never imagined Savage would even come close to being in endgame contention so this is hilarious and even when taking a Savage endgame deal, I didn't think he'd make it there. With that said, Savage is one of the few highlights and bright spots on Cambodia and I'm so glad a Savage 2.0 even exists. He feels especially necessary on a season like Cambodia and contrasts his cast perfectly. Really curious to read scorcher's take here!

/u/GwenHarper:

Look, I am not exactly happy about Savage making it to endgame, especially at the cost of Dan Lembo (who will be leaving a horse’s head in Scorcher’s bed as soon as this is all over). BUT if Mari Kondo has taught me anything, its that something does not need to be perfect to spark joy. Andrew Savage and his beanie certainly sparks a lot of joy for a lot of people, and I am excited to see how that manifests for Scorcher.

/u/qngff:

Personal Endgame Ranking: 9

Personal Overall Ranking: 60

I heavily considered putting him as my #14 just to try to further ensure that Tina outlasts him, but I’ve been ranking honestly the whole way and won’t stop now right at the end. The long and short is I simply enjoy his presence.

/u/scorcherkennedy:

"I am living the dream. I have the perfect wife. My kids, they’re amazing. I’ve got a great job. I don’t have any bad things in my life except…Pearl Islands."

Andrew Savage 2.0 (Cambodia, 12th place)

As far as I'm concerned that's the best reintroduction to a character in Survivor history. One thing I wanna hit on, which CS touched on in his writeup, is how crazy it is that Andrew Savage is out there in the first place. This is a guy who had come in tenth place on a season that aired its finale THE DAY after Saddam Hussein was captured. A guy who had apparently never been in serious contention to return before (even in terms of the idea of Micronesia being a full returnee season, it doesn't seem like Savage was being talked about). This is someone who isn't just the fourth most iconic player on their season - he's the fourth most iconic MAN on his season. And then, not only does he make it onto the ballot, he (most likely) edges out Shane Powers and finds his way onto the season. Now I remember being peeved that Shane didn't make it on but I don't think Shane could've provided the entertainment that Savage does in Cambodia (my feeling on a possible Shane 2.0 has always been he most likely gets blindsided by Varner in Vytas's place). It's like if Sarge made it onto Second Chances II and ended up being the best character on the season. It would be unthinkable. We think of Savage now as this memorable character in the Survivor canon but no one was thinking about him in 2014.

Savage gets put on Bayon which, he will repeatedly tell us throughout the season, is the Ritz Carlton of Survivor tribes. He quickly links up with his Bayon BROTHERS Jeremy and Joe, regaling Joe with stories of much his daughters adore him. Savage is in his element here. He's doing great work around camp. He's surrounded by people he likes. People he can relate to who have a strong belief in family and unity. With one notable exception.

CHAPTER 1: MORALS

That exception is Stephen Fish-bock. Let me say that anytime Savage comments on Stephen during the season it's comedic gold. The only reason I don't have Stephen 2.0 like bottom 200 is for the anger he brings out in Savage. Now here's the funniest thing to me about the Savage/Stephen stuff - it's clear Savage has no idea who Stephen is. He calls him "Fish-bock" for chrissakes. The rumor is that Savage gathered all his info about Fish-bock by reading his Survivor Wiki and I imagine Savage reading about how Fish-bock voted out Coach, A MAN OF HONOR, and being like "This guy...this is not my kind of guy." You can tell he took one look at Fish-bock on the island, got Skinny Ryan flashbacks, and vowed to send this pencil-necked noodle boy home as soon as he could.

The wife story is obviously an amazing moment that I think works as both a scene of comedy and as a scene of genuine emotion. It's the kind of scene that seems so antithetical to what Survivor values, not just now, but even at the time. The story itself is such a simple story - he and his SMOKING HOT TEN OF A WIFE met through his roommate and fell in love. But Savage gives it an epic grandeur that brings his tribe to tears. It's a simple story but Savage conveys how this simple story is one of the most important things to happen in his life. There's a moment where he finishes the story and he's just looking off at nothing in particular with tears in his eyes where you can tell the story still floors him after all these years. The whole scene is an excellent character moment for Savage. We get the sense of how much he loves his wife and how authentic he can be. But the scene is also full of a bunch of great little Savage moments I love. Him talking about how you could cut the chemistry between he and his wife as he mimes slicing with a knife like he's Michael Myers. Also the introduction of his wife as a "top model in South Africa...and a law student...and she won a beauty contest." WE GET IT, MAN. This is just a fantastic scene...somehow the scene that follows is even better.

CHAPTER 2: VALUES

The tribe begins weeping in unison (except for Fish-bock). Jeremy leaves to get some, as Savage will later call it, "private time." Fish-bock quickly suggests that Jeremy is off looking for the idol. We then get a shot of Savage with a look on his face of just indescribable, silent, fury. He doesn't want to take Fish-bock to tribal and vote him out - he wants to take Fish-bock to tribal and burn him alive as some sort of sacrifice to the Values God. We get a confessional from Savage where he seethes about Fish-bock playing the game 24/7. The funniest part of this is you get the sense that Savage isn't upset Fish-bock is throwing his buddy Jeremy under the bus - he's upset that Fish-bock is suggesting that Jeremy isn't off crying about Savage's story! This is our first glimpse of something that will become evident later on - Savage is amazingly petty and takes any sort of perceived slight or betrayal as an affront to mankind. Fish-bock doesn't stand with the Bayon Brothers and so he's a dissenter. Or as Savage puts it:

"Fish-bock is kind of lacking in-in some of the things that really mean everything to me and my tribe… morals, values, loyalty, dignity, courage. So whether I like the guy or not, his time out here, if it’s up to me, is going to be limited."

Saying someone is lacking in dignity is such an insane thing to claim but it's so on-brand for Savage. That's the hypothesis Savage puts out there - if you scheme, you are a bastard. I think the show does a good job of painting Savage and Fish-bock as philosophical rivals. Savage as the old school guy who wants to Pagong the opposing alliance and start the real game at the F7/F6 and Fish-bock as the innovator who wants to play loose with his intentions and bounce between groups. I don't think it's any surprise that the game opens up and Fish-bock's Voting Blocs talk ramps up...immediately after Savage's boot.

Episode 3 begins a new chapter in Savage's story. He and Tasha get swapped to Ankgor, an experience he will refer to as like being in Hell. He's stuck on the bottom, two Bayons with four old Takeo's. Quickly, Savage and Tasha manage to turn the tables although most of this is due to Abi being Abi. The highlight of Savage's time on Angkor is his win in the hero challenge in which he singlehandedly wins sausages for his starving tribe. It invokes memories of Savage's performance in the "carrying the weight" challenge in Pearl Islands. He gives it his all and puts his neck out on the line at all times.

I think one of the most interesting things about Savage in these first five episodes is that he's portrayed as a hero. Definitely a weird hero where there's something a bit off about him, but a hero nonetheless. He knocks over a tree with his bare hands to the cheers of his tribe. Kass calls him a great person after the wife story. He's the savior of Ankgor who helps drive out the schemer Varner and puts his heart on the line for his tribe. He's like Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio or how the world would've perceived Syndrome in The Incredibles. An outward hero putting on a mask to hide the deep resentments he harbors. That mask is steadfast in the early going but I like how there are those hints, like with the Fish-bock confessionals, that something is amiss.

CHAPTER 3: LOYALTY

And then episode 6 comes around and the show begins to peel off that mask. The show really puts an extra effort into pointing out the holes in Savage's philosophy. He chides Fish-bock for scheming and having no morals but it's Savage who, freshly swapped onto Takeo, plots to blindside Spencer in what he says will be "one of the most devastating blindsides in Survivor history." He lies to Spencer's face and promises him that he's safe. He coldly lays out in confessional his plan to rip Spencer's heart out and place it in a doggy bag. He decrees to the tribe that they will tell Spencer that Ciera is going home. He micromanages the vote to such a wild extent that it's almost impossible for him to not come off as shady to Ciera, Kass and Abi. It's a heel turn for the ages and the fascinating thing is that Savage hasn't changed. The show is just showing his actions in a different light. If Savage had gone home here it would've been a nice premerge flameout. A good case of overplaying.

CHAPTER 4: DIGNITY

However Savage, luckily for us, survives and watches his ally Woo go home. And then Savage, knocked off his pedestal, returns to camp in Episode 7 and promptly delivers several all time great confessional across the first half of the episode. I'd go as far as to say it's the best ever confessional episode for a character. Savage gets back to camp and is outwardly a humbled, desperate, mess while being a defiant bag of rage in confessional. He rants and raves about how Kass betrayed Bayon and became a Takeo, how they're all pieces of shit (which he says while lamely kicking at sand). He punctuates that "piece of shit" line with a beat that says so much about his character where he finishes kicking sand, makes eyes contact with the camera, and gives us the cheapest, fakest, million dollar grin. It's all for show, a ruse to hide the bitterness and indignation. He desperately apologizes to Spencer and vows to never write his down again (he doesn't!) and then pushes all the chips into the middle of the table when he says:

There’s a merge coming. If I have to bite my tongue, act like a wimpy little non-leader, under the radar screen kind of guy, which is the antithesis of me, I’ll do it. I need to get to that merge.

Chills. One of the things that I think really shines through about Savage as the season goes on is that he constantly speaks with a hyperbolic grandiosity about everything. The show has great fun showing us how when Savage is swapped to the desolate dreariness of Angkor, he thinks it's the worst swap ever and he hates twists and the camp is a Survivor Ghetto and he can literally see Satan in the ocean swimming backstroke and why the fuck is he here. But when a swap or merge comes around to save Savage, he can step out into the rain, raise his hands to the heavens and pray that the twist be something beautiful...A BEAUTIFUL MERGE.

CHAPTER FIVE: COURAGE

The thing with Savage in his last few episodes is that, he's not just the villain, he's the philosophical villain of the season. He's not just being opposed by Fish-bock, he's being opposed by the show itself. Savage stands in the way of the plucky underdogs, a few of whom have gotten caught in his crosshairs. He mocks out and derides Ciera's "play the game" argument (one of the final things Savage does in the game is sarcastically refer to Ciera's arguments as "fascinating." We see him warning Jeremy about how quickly alliances can dissolve and pleading to Joe to stay the course and stay Bayon strong. There's another terrific Savage/Fish-bock moments where Savage, upon eavesdropping on Fish-bock's plan to blindside Joe, remarking "Today I heard Stephen trying to put together a blindside of Joe. The scheming, lying, deceit. It’s disgusting." Disgusting! The guy who lied to Spencer's face two episodes ago doesn't like that people are targeting his buddies. He tries to convince Jeremy and co. to vote Fish-bock, belittling his reputation as a Survivor expert, a conversation I have taken some liberties with while transcribing below"

Savage: He prides himself...on being the greatest strategist...in Survivor history

Jeremy: Savage, I get it. Really I--

Savage: He considers himself...a Survivor...know it all.

Jeremy: Please Savage, we're trying to eat dinner--

Savage: This man...this grown man...hosts a podcast.

Probst: Andrew, you just got idoled out dude.

Of course, Savage argues to no avail and it ends up backfiring horribly as the plan switches to Wentworth and we get Wentworth does not count, etc. etc., does not count, etc. etc., does not count, etc. etc. Savage is stunned by this result. What I love about this exit is that he's clearly trying his best to keep his composure despite the theatrics going on around him but when Abi tosses off the "you made it to the jury" line, he can't hold in all that resentment and negative energy any longer. It's wonderful and apt final moment for the character. You can just tell his internal monologue as he walked up to Probst was like "Your life is great. Your life is great. Your life is great. Your life is great. You will never get over this." Savage and Wentworth don't really have a relationship on the season - I'm not even sure if they share a scene together to be honest. But I think the fact that he loses to that Witches Coven alliance makes his exit really satisfying and there's an interesting rhyme between it and his first season exit.

I do think there's a certain tragic aspect to Savage 2.0 that, while not overtly stated, is present enough in the season to matter. Savage is someone who was famously screwed by a twist in his first season. Even Probst said years later that the Outcast Twist was not worth it because it sent Andrew Savage home. And you get the sense that Savage has spent these twelve years ruing the twist. Ruing the missed opportunity and what was taken from him. The truth of the matter though is that Andrew Savage didn't just get voted out due to the Outcast Twist. He got voted out because he treated a Scout Leader in the minority poorly and she got the opportunity to get payback. The key part of Savage's boot in Pearl Islands is Lil calling back to "remember when I asked you to let me know." But you get the sense that Savage has never reflected on that aspect of his elimination. He's never reconsidered whether he treated Lil and Skinny Ryan poorly. The Outcast Twist enabled him to just walk around for twelve years shouting at the skies like Job rather than grow and come into the game with a softer touch. And so he makes the same mistakes all over again. He immediately clashes with the tall nerd and chastises him as not being like the other men here. He makes no bones about who his true allies are, deeming those are at the bottom of his alliance as expendable. Time after time, he antagonizes the minority alliance in the condescending, supercilious, manner that only Andrew Savage can. And, just like in Pearl Islands, that minority alliance gets shot at him, does not miss, and sends him out of the game in juicy fashion.

Savage though primarily works as an OTT masterwork. I'm gonna list out bunch of random Savage tidbits I love that I couldn't really find a place for:

• Savage walks around Angkor with what looks like a fucking laptop bag and it's such a strange style choice. I also like how he wears these glasses on the season that immediately change his look from "old dad" to "young grandfather."

• Moments after they get to Angkor, Varner says about Savage "That dude is gonna get on my nerves" and I sincerely hope Savage annoyed the fuck out of Jeff Varner during their time together. Also this great post-game interview where Savage gives the blandest remarks possible about 95% of the cast ("Keith...he's a firefighter. A good father. A friend.") and then proceeds to dip Jeff Varner into a pit of acid.

• Savage's exhausted speech after the episode 4 immunity where he brings up unprompted how he played college football and how EASY it was compared to this. Wish we could've seen Savage lose a puzzle challenge and talk about how he got a 2400 on the SATs...without studying!

• A moment I just noticed on rewatch where Savage, just before the swap back to two tribes, tells Probst how tight knit Angkor is and how he's hoping they stick together and continue their winning streak. Then he hears about the swap and immediately is like "Three most beautiful words in this world for me, “Drop your buff" which he punctuates with whats basically a gut busting chuckle.

This is just a character I get such pure enjoyment out of. He can be villainous, heroic, ridiculous, sentimental and human and sometimes a few of those things at once. I think one thing I want to pushback against with Savage is that he's a joke character, that he's Chris Noble or JT 3.0, someone who's just around to get a dumbass and get owned. The show wants us to like Savage for half his time in the game before slowly turning on him. He's someone who has this strict moral code for others but doesn't hold himself to the same code. He's someone who can tell a sincere, rambling, sweet, tale about how he and his wife met and then get pissed when someone suggests that it didn't bring everyone on the beach to tears. He's someone who reacts to every event like it's either the greatest thing to ever happen or the worst fucking tragedy ever perpetrated. Savage is one of the show's all time best confessionalists I think it's a testament to him that he has a collection of phrases and memes that we associate with him whether it's wimpy non-leaders or his morals, values etc., or the wife story. Yes, he's only in eight episodes but he delivers every second he's on screen. He has a story that tracks about an old school guy coming into new school Survivor and desperately trying to drag the game back in time. He elevates characters around him like Fish-bock, Ciera, Jeremy and, yes, even Wentworth. Cambodia's a shitty season but to me it's worth it cause we get to see Andrew Savage again. I think he's one of the most vividly realized characters the show's ever had. Let his placement be something beautiful...a beautiful endgamer.

vulture_couture: 14

CSteino: 13

scorcherkennedy: 5

xerop681: 14

JM1295: 13

GwenHarper: 14

qngff: 9

Average Placement: 11.71428571

Thank you all so much for your patience. The rankers have all been very hard at work the past few weeks making sure these all come together.

Endgame begins on 8/23/2019

Open up about all the things that went down during the rankdown!

Endgame Betting Form

Rankers can do this as well.

18 - Helen Glover (/u/vulture_couture)

17 - Tai Trang 1.0 (/u/csteino)

16 - Sandra Diaz-Twine 1.0 (/u/scorcherkennedy)

15 - Eliza Orlins 1.0 (/u/xerop681)

it's the end of the world as we know it and i feel fine

18 - Katie Gallagher (/u/CSteino) IDOLED by /u/JM1295

18 - James Clement 1.0 (/u/vulture_couture) IDOLED by /u/JM1295

18 - Natalie Anderson (/u/scorcherkennedy) IDOLED by /u/GwenHarper

18 - Helen Glover (/u/xerop681) IDOLED by /u/vulture_couture

18 - Ian Rosenberger (/u/JM1295) IDOLED by /u/Xerop681

18 - Stephenie LaGrossa 1.0(/u/GwenHarper) IDOLED by /u/scorcherkennedy

18 - Sean Rector (/u/qngff) IDOLED by /u/CSteino

22 - Rupert Boneham (/u/vulture_couture)

21 - Andrew Savage 2.0 (/u/CSteino) IDOLED by /u/scorcherkennedy

21 - Sandra Diaz-Twine 2.0 (/u/scorcherkennedy)

20 - Twila Tanner (/u/xerop681)

19 - Courtney Marit (/u/JM1295)

SKIP (/u/GwenHarper)

18 - Russell Swan 2.0 (/u/qngff) IDOLED by /u/CSteino

The pool has sharks in it.

29 - Scot Pollard (/u/csteino)

28 - Lex van den Berghe 1.0 (/u/scorcherkennedy)

27 - Jonny Fairplay 1.0 (/u/vulture_couture)

26 - Aubry Bracco 1.0 (/u/xerop681)

25 - Kass McQuillen 1.0 (/u/JM1295)

24 - Richard Hatch 1.0 (/u/GwenHarper)

23 - Randy Bailey 1.0 (/u/qngff)

SKIP (/u/vulture_couture)

34 - Fabio Birza (/u/csteino)

33 - Courtney Yates (/u/scorcherkennedy)

32 - Dreamz Herd (/u/xerop681)

31 - Lil Morris (/u/JM1295)

30 - Kathy Vavrick-O'Brien (/u/GwenHarper)

29 - Sue Hawk (/u/qngff) IDOLED by /u/JM1295

A Moon Shaped No Pool

41 - Chris Daugherty (/u/vulture_couture)

40 - Jon Misch (/u/csteino)

39 - Lauren Rimmer (/u/scorcherkennedy)

38 - Jaclyn Schulz (/u/xerop681)

37 - Lindsey Richter (/u/JM1295)

36 - John Carroll (/u/GwenHarper)

35 - Coach Wade 1.0 (/u/qngff)

No pools! Only the open ocean. Swimming in the deep end now. Take off your floaties. Succumb to the inherent eroticism of our dark mother, the sea.

48 - Deena Bennett (/u/vulture_couture)

47 - Trish Hegarty (/u/csteino)

46 - Cydney Gillon (/u/scorcherkennedy)

45 - Frank Garrison (/u/xerop681)

44 - Stephenie LaGrossa 2.0 (/u/JM1295)

43 - Holly Hoffman (/u/GwenHarper)

42 - Chrissy Hofbeck (/u/qngff)

No pool! That feels so weird.

54 - Colleen Haskell (/u/vulture_couture) (WILDCARD)

53 - Christy Smith (/u/csteino)(idoled by /u/qngff)

53 - Peih-Gee Law 1.0 (/u/scorcherkennedy) (WILDCARD)

52 - Sugar Kiper 1.0 (/u/xerop681) (WILDCARD)

51 - Rob Mariano 1.0 (/u/JM1295) (WILDCARD)

50 - Ciera Eastin 1.0 (/u/GwenHarper)

49 - Christy Smith (/u/qngff)

The Pool: Lauren Rimmer, Katie Gallagher, Andrew Savage 2.0, Jaclyn Schulz, Lil Morris, Jon Misch, Ciera Eastin 1.0 THE POOL IS DEAD

60 - Keith Nale 1.0 (/u/vulture_couture)

59 - Aubry Bracco 1.0 (/u/csteino) IDOLED by /u/vulture_couture

59 - Tyson Apostol 1.0 (/u/scorcherkennedy)

58 - Colby Donaldson 1.0 (/u/xerop681)(WILDCARD)

57 - Abi-Maria Gomes 1.0 (/u/JM1295)

56 - Dan Lembo (/u/GwenHarper)

55 - Denise Stapley (/u/qngff)

The Pool: Lauren Rimmer, Katie Gallagher, Andrew Savage 2.0, Jaclyn Schulz, Christy Smith, Lil Morris, Jon Misch

66 - Rupert Boneham 3.0 (/u/vulture_couture)

65 - Shane Powers (/u/CSteino) (WILDCARD)

64 - Parvati Shallow 3.0 (/u/scorcherkennedy)

63 - Gervase Peterson 1.0 (/u/xerop681)

TRIBE SWAP (/u/jm1295)

62 - Burton Roberts (/u/GwenHarper)

61 - Sophie Clarke (/u/qngff)

The Pool: Denise Stapley, Aubry Bracco 1.0, Lauren Rimmer, Tyson Apostol 1.0, Keith Nale 1.0, Scot Pollard, Katie Gallagher